MIAMI, FL – U.S. District Judge Rodney Smith sentenced Steven Dexter Gangoo, 20, to 15 years in federal prison followed by 25 years of supervised release for enticing and coercing young girls, as young as 13-years-old, into producing and transmitting sexually explicit photographs and videos of themselves. Making good on a threat to one of his victims, Gangoo shared nude photographs of the 16-year-old girl with her Instagram friends.
According to court records, Gangoo contacted his victims on social media. Gangoo’s tactic with the young girls was to “friend” them on social media, tell them they were pretty, and have the girls send him suggestive photographs of themselves. Gangoo initially offered the victims money to perform such acts. However, once the victims sent the requested images and or videos, Gangoo would extort them by using initial images and videos as leverage to gain compliance into taking and sending additional nude photographs, in poses that he selected. If the victims refused to comply with his demands, he would threaten the victims by sharing their nude images and videos with their family and friends. As the chats progressed, the demands became more sexually explicit. When one of his victims stopped communicating with Gangoo, he did just that. He sent nude pictures of the minor to her school friends, whom he identified through the victim’s social media contacts.
One of Gangoo’s victims told her parents about Gangoo’s demands. This prompted a South Florida law enforcement investigation. Officers located Gangoo in Broward County and arrested him. On January 11, 2022, Gangoo pled guilty to producing child pornography. It should be noted that Gangoo was actively trading Child sex abuse material with other like-minded subjects using various online social media platforms.
Juan Antonio Gonzalez, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and George L. Piro, Special Agent in Charge, FBI, Miami Field Office, made the announcement. U.S. Attorney Juan Antonio Gonzalez commended the investigative efforts of FBI, and, in particular, FBI’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force who worked in partnership with the Plantation Police Department and the Fort Lauderdale Police Department on the matter. The U.S. Attorney also thanks the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
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