Attorney General James Uthmeier has been cleaning house since taking office in Florida.
He's putting child predators exactly where they belong.
And Florida’s Attorney General just slapped one predator with 70 years for a disgusting Snapchat crime.
FDLE Catches Oxford Man After National Center Tip
Florida law enforcement is done playing games with sick individuals who prey on children and animals.
Brent Wells thought Snapchat's disappearing messages would keep him safe from the law.
He was dead wrong.
The 35-year-old Oxford man is staring down 70 years in prison after Attorney General James Uthmeier's office charged him with 14 felony counts related to child and animal sexual abuse material.¹
"Trading in this offensive and disgusting material revictimizes the children who were forced to participate in its production and exploits helpless animals who are unable to speak for themselves," Uthmeier said.¹
https://twitter.com/AGJamesUthmeier/status/2001049887337496982?s=20
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement launched the investigation on December 3 after receiving a cyber tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.¹
Someone was uploading sexual abuse material to a Snapchat account.
That someone turned out to be Wells.
FDLE agents moved fast and executed a search warrant at Wells' Oxford home on December 5.¹
They seized his cellphone and found exactly what they were looking for — more digital files showing the sexual abuse of children and animals.
Wells is facing 12 counts of possession of child sexual abuse materials and two counts of animal sexual abuse materials.¹
"We have zero tolerance for this depraved behavior in Florida," Uthmeier stated.¹
This Isn't Uthmeier's First Rodeo With These Monsters
Wells isn't an isolated case in Uthmeier's war on predators.
The Attorney General's Office has been relentless.
In September, a Green Cove Springs man named Luke Sedlock was arrested on similar charges involving children and animals after FDLE received tips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.²
This isn't about racking up arrests.
Uthmeier secured a 135-year prison sentence for David Robert McKeown of Volusia County for possession of child pornography and sexual conduct with an animal earlier this year.³
McKeown was a teacher at UBIC Academy who used school Wi-Fi to send and receive child sexual abuse materials during school hours.³
The pattern is obvious — Uthmeier's prosecutors are throwing the book at these predators and judges are handing down sentences that keep them locked up for life.
In April, Uthmeier announced charges against eight members of an international child pornography ring after FDLE discovered advertisements on social media selling massive amounts of child sexual abuse material.⁴
Seven of the eight arrested resided in Florida.⁴
"It's disgusting that child sexual abuse material is advertised in plain view on apps such as TikTok, and we will continue fighting to get these major social media companies to do their part in shutting down the spread of this material," Uthmeier explained.⁴
https://twitter.com/AGJamesUthmeier/status/2001389644802379872?s=20
The Attorney General's Office has also secured a 25-year prison sentence for a predator who possessed at least 22 files of child sexual abuse material featuring minors around the age of 12.⁵
Snapchat Has Become Ground Zero For Child Predators
Snapchat's disappearing message feature makes it the platform of choice for predators who think they can hide their crimes.
They're finding out the hard way that law enforcement has caught up with the technology.
Uthmeier has made it clear Snapchat bears responsibility for facilitating these crimes.
His office filed a lawsuit against Snapchat for "knowingly and willingly violating Florida law, including the protections enshrined in last year's HB3 and the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act."⁶
A record-breaking undercover child predator operation called "Seek and Ye Shall Find Out" resulted in 48 arrests in Central Florida — the highest number ever for this annual initiative.⁷
The operation exposed how predators were using Snapchat to target children.⁷
"As a father, I am outraged by the heinous crimes we spoke about today," Uthmeier said during the announcement.⁷
Six of those arrested were foreign nationals on ICE detainers who traveled from countries like Jamaica, El Salvador, Dubai, and India with the intent to exploit children.⁷
https://twitter.com/AGJamesUthmeier/status/1999597457504919673?s=20
Internal Snapchat documents revealed the company was receiving 10,000 sextortion reports per month by late 2022.⁸
Employees pointed to one account that had 75 complaints against it — and Snapchat didn't take it down.⁸
The company claimed that addressing child grooming would create privacy issues and be too expensive.⁸
Senator Dick Durbin called out Snapchat's CEO Evan Spiegel during a Congressional hearing, noting that "as early as 2017, law enforcement identified Snapchat as the pedophile's go-to sexual exploitation tool."⁸
New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez dispatched undercover agents to pose as teenagers on Snapchat.
"I did not expect to see the volume and the level of aggressiveness that we have seen from these undercover operations," Torrez told NPR.⁸
His agents found child exploitation, drugs, and weapons being sold to minors — a black market operating in plain sight.⁸
Uthmeier is holding both the predators and the platform accountable.
Wells will spend the next seven decades behind bars if convicted on all charges.
And Snapchat better lawyer up because Florida isn't backing down from this fight.
¹ Drew Dixon, "James Uthmeier: Central Florida man charged over illegal images of children and animals on Snapchat," Florida Politics, December 17, 2025.
² Ibid.
³ "Attorney General James Uthmeier Announces 135-Year Prison Sentence for Predator in Child Sexual Abuse Material, Animal Sex Conduct Case," My Florida Legal, 2025.
⁴ "Attorney General James Uthmeier Charges Eight Members of International Child Pornography Ring," My Florida Legal, April 7, 2025.
⁵ "Attorney General James Uthmeier Secures 25-Year Prison Sentence for Predator Who Possessed Child Pornography," My Florida Legal, 2025.
⁶ "WATCH: 48 arrested in sting set up to target suspected child predators," WorldNetDaily, August 6, 2025.
⁷ "'Seek and Ye Shall Find Out': Record-breaking child predator sting nabs 48 in Florida," KOMO News, July 31, 2025.
⁸ Dara Kerr, "Snapchat brushed aside warnings of child harm, documents show," NPR, October 4, 2024.
