STAFFER FOR STATE SENATOR ARRESTED 🔞 ON FEDERAL CHILD SEX TRAFFICKING CHARGES

⁣The FBI arrested a staffer for a state senator in Juneau on Friday after a federal grand jury returned an indictment charging him with sex trafficking children.

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State senator responds after chief of staff arrested on federal child sex trafficking charges

Craig Scott Valdez, 36, of Anchorage faces between 15 years to life in prison if convicted

JUNEAU, Alaska (KTUU) — The FBI arrested state Sen. George Rauscher‘s chief of staff in Juneau on Friday after a federal grand jury returned an indictment charging Craig Scott Valdez, 36, with sex trafficking children — and investigators believe he may have targeted at least 11 other juveniles across Alaska.

According to court documents, Valdez, whose LinkedIn profile lists him as a chief of staff in the Alaska legislature for the past year, used the popular social media app Snapchat to identify, groom and entice juvenile females in Alaska for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

Senator Rauscher responds
“I was informed today of the arrest of a member of my staff in a federal investigation involving extremely serious charges,” Rauscher, R-Sutton, said in a press release sent at 6:22 p.m. Friday. “I learned of this matter after law enforcement action was taken and then from the press. I trust the Department of Justice to handle this appropriately.”

“This is a shock to my office. The employee was terminated,” Rauscher, who was not at a Senate Resources Committee hearing earlier Friday, added in the release. “I do not have anything more to say, other than we need the justice system to take its course as the process continues.”

According to court documents, Valdez arranged via Snapchat to pick up a juvenile from their family’s residence and brought them by car to his home on Endicott Street in Anchorage — to sexually exploit the minor on his birthday.

The minor’s sibling alerted their mother, who used a family tracking app to locate the juvenile at Valdez’s residence. When she arrived, she heard the minor inside say they wanted to go home. The mother entered the residence, struck Valdez once in the face and recovered the minor, who exhibited signs of extreme drug or alcohol intoxication and had difficulty walking and maintaining consciousness, court documents say.

Anchorage Police Department officers responded shortly after — at which point Valdez, court documents say, “puzzlingly” fled his own home.

The mother brought the minor home, where she realized the juvenile’s cell phone had been left behind at Valdez’s residence. Using a linked iPad, the mother accessed the minor’s Snapchat account and captured screenshots of messages between the juvenile and Valdez — who used the handle “noname20233132” and identified himself as “Big Daddy Griffin” — in which Valdez enticed the minor to travel with him for the purposes of sexual exploitation. As the mother captured the messages, it appeared Valdez was attempting to delete the conversation and block the minor from his device, according to the memo.

Later that morning, the mother brought the minor to the hospital, where the juvenile underwent a forensic sexual assault examination and was interviewed by detectives from APD’s Crimes Against Children Unit. Both the minor and the mother positively identified Valdez as the individual in the Endicott Street residence. The minor told investigators they had been introduced to Valdez by other children roughly a year earlier — meaning the juvenile may have been as young as 13 or 14 at the time of first contact, according to the memo.

The Alaska State Crime Lab identified a DNA sample recovered from the minor. The FBI has served a DNA warrant on Valdez to run a comparison between the two profiles.

Charges and potential sentence

Valdez faces four federal counts:

Count 1: Sex Trafficking of Children
Count 2: Sexual Exploitation of Children (Production of Child Pornography)
Count 3: Coercion and Enticement of Children
Count 4: Sexual Exploitation of a Child (Receipt of Child Pornography)

If convicted, Valdez faces between 15 years to life in federal prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors, the FBI said.

Valdez will make his initial court appearance Monday, Feb. 23, 2026, before U.S. Magistrate Judge Kyle F. Reardon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska. Prosecutors have filed a motion seeking to keep Valdez detained pending trial, arguing no conditions of release would adequately protect the community.

https://www.alaskasnewssource.com/2026/02/20/mat-su-senators-chief-staff-arrested-federal-child-sex-trafficking-charges/

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XYHf-pVt-g