![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/uthmemier-apr-7-25-1-768x512-1.webp?resize=768%2C512&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\u201cWe will be bringing charges against eight individuals this morning, seven of whom are Florida residents,\u201d Uthmeier said. \u201cAs a dad of three little ones, it\u2019s tough to talk about some of this stuff, but what these guys were doing was truly heinous. There\u2019s not a word in the English dictionary that can describe the gross content that was on the videos.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The charges against all eight include felony counts of RICO, money laundering, and purchase of child pornography.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Uthmeier thanked Rita Peters from the statewide prosecution office for \u201cleading this fight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was joined by Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Mark Glass and officials from Homeland Security Investigations and the Office of Statewide Prosecution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The attorney general said investigators obtained over a million videos \u201cshowing sexual abuse on minors \u2013 many of these individuals were babies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis continues to be a problem in our country, in our state \u2013 protecting our kids is not an easy task to begin with, and today, with the access to the internet and social media, it allows these sick predators to more easily get access to our kids,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Uthmeier added that some of the activities occurred \u201cthrough TikTok.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was available online,\u201d he said. \u201cThey found access to a portal where they could purchase this dangerous material.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The attorney general called on TikTok and other platforms to be faster at shutting down that type of content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got my word that in this state, we are going to do everything we can to hold these people accountable,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you are a child predator, if you are one of these sick people, then I hope you never see the sun again, and I hope you certainly never have access to kids again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201c[Rita Peters is] going to slap these guys around in the courtroom, and unfortunately, I\u2019m figurative in that comment,\u201d Uthmeier said. \u201cThankful [for] her, as well as investigator Abby George, who busted the case.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Florida law enforcement busted a large international child pornography ring that involved eight individuals and over one million explicit videos, Attorney General James Uthmeier said Monday. \u201cWe will be bringing… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55045,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"14","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMDRcL3V0aG1lbWllci1hcHItNy0yNS0xLTc2OHg1MTItMS53ZWJwP2ZpdD03NjglMkM1MTImc3NsPTEiLCJ0eHQiOiJGbG9yaWRhIGJ1c3RzIHN1YnN0YW50aWFsIGludGVybmF0aW9uYWwgY2hpbGQgcG9ybiByaW5nIG92ZXIgMSBtaWxsaW9uIHZpZGVvcyBpbnZvbHZlZCIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiaGlnaHdheSIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.1nNS1ISk_1_8OZQWszaTsE7_MxE_5KX9BYzj_rxhbW4MQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":55045,"url":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/uthmemier-apr-7-25-1-768x512-1.webp","type":"image\/webp"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[11279],"class_list":["post-55044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-florida-busts-substantial-international-child-porn-ring-over-1-million-videos-involved"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55044"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55046,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55044\/revisions\/55046"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}