He taught mariachi out of his Phoenix home. He offered private lessons to girls as young as 6. And for years, he recorded not only their music but their nude bodies.
Carlos Jobany Castaneda Lechuga, 38, pleaded guilty on July 6 to using his students to produce child pornography that later was posted on the dark web, court records show.
"Lechuga recorded videos and images that showed him undressing, touching and exposing the girls' nude genitalia to the camera," federal authorities said in a statement.
Former mariachi teacher Carlos Jobany Castaneda Lechuga, 38, pleaded guilty earlier this month to producing child pornography involving five former students aged 6 to 11.
Lechuga admitted to filming and photographing five girls aged 6-11 from 2013 to 2019, according to the Arizona United States Attorney's Office.
"In December 2024, the FBI located five video recordings on the dark web showing two of the identified girls," the attorney's office said in its statement.
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Lechuga, who also went by the name Carlos Castaneda, was a minor celebrity in the Phoenix music scene. He was named the 2015-17 outstanding graduate by Arizona State University and the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts.
Lechuga had a bachelor's and a master's degree from ASU in music. He taught orchestra and mariachi at the Kyrene School District and at various local nonprofits.
He also had his own YouTube channel where he promoted videos of concerts and performances in the Phoenix area, court records show.
Lechuga, in his plea agreement, admitted that five girls in 2019 reported he had molested them.
"In November 2019, five minor age girls, and their parents ... went to Phoenix Police Department to report that I touched them inappropriately and this supported a state search warrant for my home," Lechuga said in the plea.
"I left the State of Arizona. No state charges were brought," he said.
In 2023, Lechuga moved to Laredo, Texas, and took a job teaching at Texas A&M International University, court records show. Federal agents arrested him there in 2024.
Phoenix FBI Special Agent Emily Steele said in a 2025 criminal complaint that an undercover "online covert employee" purchased five videos with 1350 electronic tokens on an internet exchange site.
Steele said Lechuga was identified in the videos and traced to Phoenix, where three separate reports had been filed years earlier accusing him of molesting five girls. Steele said she confirmed two victims who reported being molested in 2019 were among the girls depicted in the five videos.
Lechuga befriended the families of the girls he targeted, court records show. In one case, he bought a girl a dog and said he would take it back if the girl did not comply with his demands. He also threatened not to let her sing solos and take away instruments, according to court records.
Steele recounted in the complaint how the girl, described as MV1 or Minor Victim 1 in court documents, demanded her mother cut her long hair in 2018. The mother reported Lechuga called and yelled about the haircut, asking why she had done it.
"Lechuga never touched MV1 after she cut her hair," Steele said in the complaint. "MV1 kept her hair cut to her shoulders to this day."
In June 2025, the FBI issued a bulletin asking for the public's help identifying potential victims in Lechuga's case. "The FBI believes he primarily targeted minor female students between the timeframe of 2015 and 2019," according to the bulletin.
Each count of producing child pornography carries a minimum of 15 years and a maximum of 30 years in prison and a possible fine of $250,000.
Lechuga's faces up to 150 years in prison and a $1.2 million fine. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 15.
