Fidel Salinas, a member of Anonymous, was sentenced to 6 months in prison and forced to pay $10,600.00 in restitution. Prior to surrendering to the Marshalls, Salinas reported that he was contacted by the FBI and asked to gather intel on Mexican drug cartels and also on government figures accepting bribes from drug cartels.

Salinas says he refused. Four months later, he was hit with a single computer fraud and abuse charge. Six months after that, prosecutors filed a superseding indictment, adding 13 more counts. The next month they added another 30, adding up to a total of 44 charges. Eighteen of those charges were for cyberstalking an unnamed victim, and each charge was based on a single instance of Salinas submitting junk text in a contact form on the victim’s website.

When Ekeland took Salinas’ case and began to push back, the charges quickly fell to 28 counts and then a single-misdemeanor plea deal. “As soon as they got caught, they folded,” Ekeland told WIRED in November. “I feel sorry for all the people that don’t have the support that Fidel had … There are a ton of Fidel Salinases out there that aren’t as lucky.” 

Fidel was released on 8/7/15.