Salinas was arrested in September 2013 for attempting to hack into the website of the Hidalgo County in Texas. The suspect claimed that he was only trying to find vulnerabilities in the website and report them to administrators, but admitted using the online chat rooms frequented by Anonymous hackers.
He was charged in October 2013 for the cyberattack on Hidalgo County’s servers. Earlier this month, the man was charged with an additional 14 counts related to computer hacking.
Authorities believe he has also targeted the servers of the La Joya Independent School District and The Monitor newspaper.
Previously, his lawyer said that the prosecution had no case against her client, pointing to the fact that the case had dragged on for two years.
However, according to the FBI, a federal grand jury has returned a second superseding indictment against Salinas. He faces new computer hacking charges and a total of 18 counts of cyberstalking. In total, 44 charges have been brought against him.
The new hacking and cyberstalking charges are related to a woman who Salinas allegedly attempted to harass and intimidate in late December 2011. Court documents show that he attempted to hack into her website, and tried to open user accounts without her consent. He’s also said to have emailed her repeatedly and made submissions via a contact form hosted on her website.
“The indictment lists his alleged attempts to stalk her and hack into her website. According to the indictment, he repeatedly did so late at night and early in the morning, with his stalking attempts or messages sometimes occurring less than one minute apart from each other,” the FBI noted.
“He allegedly did so as part of a conspiracy or agreement with at least one other person, according to the charges.”
As far as the older charges are concerned, the FBI says Salinas attempted to hack into the server of Hidalgo County because he believed he could gain access to voter registration information, SSNs, and details, including payroll data, on county employees.
He’s believed to have conspired with other Anonymous hackers to breach websites.
The suspect’s lawyer says he has nothing to do with Anonymous, highlighting the fact that anyone can access the chat rooms used by the hacktivists.
However, authorities say that he not only accessed online chat rooms used by Anonymous for the AntiSec operation, but he also posted a “profanity-laced rant” on Facebook, which he ended with “We do not forgive, we do not forget, divide by zero we fall, expect us.” The message was posted shortly after he attempted to hack into the website of the Hidalgo County.
The man faces 10 years in prison for each of the charges brought against him.