WESTLAND, Mich. – A Westland man is expected in federal court this week after investigators say an anonymous tip about blackmail on social media led the FBI to an Instagram cybertip and explicit chats with someone who identified herself as 16, the FBI said.
An FBI Special Agent working out of Detroit said the investigation into Peter Caleb-Anthony Qaoud, 30, of Westland began in May 2026, when federal investigators received an online tip from an anonymous person. The tip alleged that a person named Peter “was threatening and blackmailing people on Snapchat, including minors.”
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‘He has threatened underage people’
“This man has been blackmailing multiple women online through discord and VRchat communities with nudes, threatening their families, children and other horrible things to get what he wants, some are most likely underage, and he has threatened underage people,” the tip allegedly said.
The feds said they then checked databases including one managed by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and found a cybertip that Instagram had submitted in February 2026.
According to the FBI, Instagram handed over chats, photos and videos to NCMEC. Instagram also provided info about another user who “identified themselves as 16 years old” in their profile. In May 2026, the FBI confirmed the teen was “a minor female living outside the state of Michigan.”
In a complaint filed in June 2026, the feds included a conversation between the user and the alleged minor on Feb. 12, 2026. Much of it is too explicit, but some of it said:
MINOR– “Maybe I could take a small video rn”
MINOR – “If you want”
USERNAME-1 – “Ofc I do”
USERNAME-1 – “Pls”
USERNAME-1 – “I crave you”
USERNAME-1 – “Can you call”
MINOR – “I cant right yet but what kind of video do you want”
The FBI said in May 2026, the media files originally submitted by Instagram to NCMEC included a 23-second video of a girl and another 25-second close-up video of a girl – both allegedly meeting “the federal definition of child pornography.”
Tracking down Qaoud
Instagram then provided a phone number and an email address associated with the username, the feds said, and they contacted Verizon and Comcast.
“Comcast records show that the name of the subscriber for the account is Qaoud’s residence in Westland,” the complaint said. Further records allegedly showed that Peter Qaoud was associated with “the same residence.”
The FBI said location information and Google subscriber information also lead them to “Peter Q” and the same address in Westland.
Qaoud was arrested and later indicted on July 1, 2026, for Receipt of Child Pornography and Possession of Child Pornography. Records show Qaoud was given a $10,000 bond with conditions like home detention and GPS monitoring.
Qaoud faces at least 5 and up to 20 years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine. He also faces a life term of supervised release.
Court records show Qaoud has a final pretrial hearing scheduled for August 13, 2026, at 2:00 p.m. The original trial date of September 1, 2026, was delayed. No new trial date has been set yet, records showed.