Florida AG James Uthmeier just hit 1,400 child predator takedowns in a single year.
Two new cases show exactly how these monsters operate – and how Florida is stopping them cold.
One of them looked investigators in the eye, denied everything, and then confessed the moment they read him his rights.
Discord and TikTok Led Cops Straight to a Leesburg Man's Front Door
Devon Huart, 20, of Leesburg thought he was careful.
He wasn't.
Discord and TikTok both flagged him to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
FDLE executed a search warrant at his home in January.
Huart looked agents in the face and denied having anything.
Then they read him his Miranda rights – and he admitted everything.
Investigators kept digging and found ten additional files beyond what triggered his initial arrest.
Huart now faces 11 counts of possession of child sexual abuse material and remains in custody.
Prosecutors say this is the template – predators contact children on mainstream apps like Discord, Roblox, TikTok, and Instagram, then move conversations to platforms where monitoring is harder.
https://twitter.com/AGJamesUthmeier/status/2031060201713836429?s=20
Your kids are on every one of those apps right now.
A 52-Year-Old in New Port Richey Just Got 25 Years for What Was on His Devices
Michael Ambrosio, 52, of New Port Richey didn't make it to trial.
He couldn't.
FDLE launched an undercover peer-to-peer operation in October 2023 and caught Ambrosio distributing child sexual abuse material through his IP address.
When agents searched his home in January 2024, they found five files that investigators described as among the most graphic material they had ever encountered.
Ambrosio entered an open plea and a Pasco County judge sentenced him to 25 years on 15 counts of possession and one count of possession with intent to promote.
AG Uthmeier said it plainly at Monday's press conference: every time those videos are watched, shared, or sold, the child in them is victimized again.
Florida Is Fighting the Platforms That Enable This
The 1,400-arrest milestone isn't just a number – it's what happens when an attorney general decides to fight on every front at once.
Uthmeier sued Snapchat in April 2025, accusing the company of knowingly deceiving Florida parents while openly defying the state's HB3 child protection law – the same law Governor DeSantis signed to ban children under 14 from the platforms targeting them.
In April, his office charged eight members of an international child pornography ring after FDLE found advertisements selling child sexual abuse material openly on TikTok.
Last summer's undercover sting – "Seek and Ye Shall Find Out" – produced 48 arrests and 153 charges in six days, including six foreign nationals who flew in from Jamaica, El Salvador, Dubai, and India specifically to prey on Florida children.
https://twitter.com/AGJamesUthmeier/status/2031030570361422068?s=20
Since taking office in February 2025, Uthmeier's office has participated in more than 1,500 child exploitation investigations.
The predators aren't lurking in back alleys.
They're on the same apps your grandchildren use every single day, and in every other state in America, they're getting away with it.
Florida is the only place where they aren't.
Sources:
- Kennedy Owens, "Florida AG: Central Florida man arrested, another sentenced 25 years as child exploitation crackdown tops 1,400 arrests," Florida News, March 9, 2026.
- "Attorney General James Uthmeier Announces 48 Arrests, 153 Charges in Record-Breaking Undercover Child Predator Operation in Central Florida," My Florida Legal, July 31, 2025.
- "Attorney General James Uthmeier Takes Legal Action Against Snapchat," My Florida Legal, April 22, 2025.
- "OPERATION DIRTBAG: ICE Arrests Over 150 Criminal Illegal Alien Sex Predators in Florida Crackdown," Department of Homeland Security, November 13, 2025.
- "CyberTipline Data," National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, 2023.
