Gainesville man charged with transmitting child pornography while on pre-trial release

Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Kenneth Emmanuel Cruz-Santiago, 26, has been charged with possession and transmission of child pornography and transported from a state prison, where he finished two previous sentences on January 1; at the time of the alleged offense, he was on pre-trial release after a Hillsborough County arrest for marijuana trafficking.

On November 16, 2024, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received a CyberTip about a Snapchat account that uploaded and shared two images depicting child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The tip provided a phone number and date of birth associated with the suspect’s account, and the date of birth matches Cruz-Santiago’s date of birth.

The tip was originally assigned to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, but once that office learned that the phone number was registered to a person living in Newberry, the tip was sent to the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office, and an ASO detective began investigating the tip on January 9, 2025.

Further investigation found that the phone number was linked to Cruz-Santiago, and then the detective learned that Cruz-Santiago had been arrested in Alachua County for drug and firearm possession on January 12, 2025. The detective found that Cruz-Santiago had a cell phone when he was arrested, and the cell phone’s number matched the number in the CyberTip.

On January 28, 2025, the detective interviewed Cruz-Santiago at the Alachua County Jail, and post Miranda, Cruz-Santiago reportedly confirmed that the phone number was his. He said he had a Snapchat account but gave a different username than the one in the CyberTip. Cruz-Santiago reportedly gave the detective the passcode for his phone and provided consent to search it; the detective obtained a search warrant for the phone, and a review of the phone showed no links to the suspect’s Snapchat account.

On January 30, 2025, Snapchat provided the contents of the suspect’s account, and the detective learned that the account was accessed from an iPhone; Cruz-Santiago’s phone was an Android. However, the geolocation data for the suspect’s Snapchat account placed the user at a Gainesville address belonging to a family member of Cruz-Santiago on November 15, 2024.

On November 15, 2024, the suspect’s Snapchat account exchanged messages with another account, and the suspect’s account received pictures of a female and then asked for “something else younger.” When the other account sent more images, the suspect’s account sent, “Younger.”

In another conversation on November 15, 2024, the suspect’s account sent one of the CSAM images to another account and told that account they wanted similar images; the other account did not send any CSAM to the suspect’s account.

In another conversation on November 14, 2024, another account referred to the owner of the suspect’s account as “Kenneth.”

The detective reported that the two CSAM files in the CyberTip were found in the suspect’s account, and there were also 38 pictures and videos showing Cruz-Santiago’s face; Cruz-Santiago’s Cashapp account was also shared in messages.

In August 2025, the detective spoke with the family member who lived at the Gainesville address, and she reportedly told the detective that Cruz-Santiago’s phone had been stolen “before Christmas of 2024”; the detective found an incident report from November 14, 2024 in which Cruz-Santiago had reported that his iPhone was stolen.

The detective reported that the contents and geolocation data from the suspect’s account showed that Cruz-Santiago was using the account at the time the CSAM images were uploaded.

One of the CSAM files reportedly showed a partially nude female child, approximately 6-8 years old, on the lap of a partially nude adult male; the other showed a nude female, approximately 12-14 years old.

Cruz-Santiago has been charged with two counts of possession of child pornography and two counts of transmission of child pornography; in the arrest warrant, Judge David Kreider set bail at $150,000. Cruz-Santiago has five felony convictions (one violent) and four misdemeanor convictions (one violent); he just finished serving two nearly-concurrent prison sentences, one out of Alachua County and one out of Hillsborough County. He is on probation until January 1, 2028.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.