Watsonville man sees drug, sex charges nearly double; incidents first reported at schools

Charges against a 35-year-old Watsonville man accused of using social media to offer local children drugs in exchange for sex nearly double in an amended complaint filed with the Santa Cruz County Superior Court on Monday. A filing from early September shows that his crimes first came to light through incidents reported at various local school campuses.

Luis Alberto Salas was arrested Sept. 3 and is currently being held without bail as he faces charges that include contacting a minor with the intent for sex, kidnapping, false imprisonment and drug crimes. He is now facing 42 counts in total, up from 24 originally. Police said he contacted minors over social media platforms including Snapchat, using handles that include “Cookies_squad,” “Penjaminpookie” and “LuciousLouie.” The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office issued a warning to local guardians and parents of minors following his arrest to be cautious about their children’s use of social media.

Law enforcement agencies told Lookout last week that investigators have identified several victims who live or go to school in Santa Cruz, and the Capitola Police Department has received a few complaints related to the case as well. A filing from Sept. 4 shows that some of the first reported incidents came to light at local schools.

On May 22, four students between the ages of 12 and 14 were found intoxicated on the campus of an unnamed Capitola school. According to court documents, the minors said that they purchased five ready-to-drink cocktails and two vape pens from a man they met at Monterey Park. When one of the students’ fathers accessed his child’s Snapchat account, he saw that the handle of the person in question was “cookies_squad2.” Another Capitola student caught with a vape pen on campus in August said they bought it from a man with the Snapchat name of “cookiessquad.”

On May 31, a Scotts Valley mother was speaking to her son about drugs and alcohol when he told her that he knew of a man selling alcohol and vape pens to Scotts Valley Middle School students in exchange for sexual favors, according to court documents. He said that he did not ever have contact with the man, but knew his Snapchat handle was “cookies_squad2.”

On Aug. 5, a 15-year-old student of an unnamed high school in Santa Cruz told the school resource officer that she knew of a man named “Louis,” with the Snapchat handle “cookies_squad2,” who was selling drugs to minors for sex and money. That minor met the man at Fosters Freeze to purchase drugs, and while he tried to engage sexually with the minor, she declined. The student also told law enforcement that a friend of hers was “in a relationship” with Salas and that she would trade sex for drugs with him, often meeting at the Safeway parking lot on Morrissey Avenue.

When police investigated these allegations, two unnamed victims came forward and said they had also been involved with Salas. One said she’d engaged in sexual intercourse with him when she was 14. The other victim said she would receive drugs from Salas in exchange for lewd photos. 

Salas was also accused of bringing alcohol to a party thrown by a 17-year-old in 2023, where he also reportedly groped the host.

Santa Cruz County Assistant District Attorney Jason Gill said in a court filing that Salas poses “too great a danger to the public if released,” and also deemed him a flight risk because “he has no significant community ties, the charges in this case carry significant consequences, and simply put — we don’t trust this defendant to show up on his good word.”

Salas is due back in court Nov. 11 for the setting of a preliminary hearing in his case.

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