A New York man has admitted to producing a series of dark web child sexual abuse images and videos recorded with a 13-year-old girl at Airbnb rentals in Northern Kentucky.
Randy Moreno, 25, pleaded guilty June 2 in federal court in Covington to traveling in interstate commerce to engage in illicit sexual activity and coercing a minor to participate in sex acts to produce child sexual abuse material.
Despite negotiations, Moreno entered a guilty plea to all four counts included in a July 2025 indictment without reaching an agreement with prosecutors.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyle Winslow said in court that Moreno communicated with the girl via Snapchat and arranged to meet her on two separate occasions at Airbnb rentals in Elsmere and Erlanger.
Moreno told U.S. District Judge David Bunning that he traveled from his home in New York City to have sex with the girl. He also admitted to recording the sexual contact and sending videos and images to another person, who began selling them.
The videos were later found on the dark web.
“These are very serious charges,” Bunning said in court.
Illicit videos produced in NKY landed on Interpol’s radar
The series of images and videos that Moreno recorded was known as “HEXAGONRUG” in Interpol’s International Child Sexual Exploitation database, according to a criminal complaint.
A U.S. Department of Homeland Security analyst began reviewing the series in February 2025, the complaint states, including video files posted onto a dark web forum. They determined that most of the files associated with that series were created at the properties in Elsmere and Erlanger.
The owners of those properties contracted with Airbnb for guest rentals, a federal agent wrote in the complaint. The analyst then reviewed Airbnb records that showed Moreno rented the Elsmere property in June 2024 and the Erlanger property less than two months later.
He also left reviews of the properties corresponding with dates on which some of the child sex abuse files were created, the complaint states.
During an interview in May 2025, the girl said she met with a man from New York who went by “Santiago,” an alias that Moreno admitted to using. Snapchat messages between Moreno and the girl showed conversations about meeting up at a rental and about videos recorded during one of the encounters.
He admitted in court to sending the videos to the girl.
Moreno faces decades in prison for sexual abuse videos case
As of June 2025, the complaint states, Moreno was being investigated for similar conduct involving a different minor in Virginia; however, online court records do not indicate that he was ever charged.
He was arrested last year in Queens, New York, in connection with the Northern Kentucky case.
Moreno is expected to appear in court again on Nov. 2 for sentencing. Each charge he pleaded guilty to carries a maximum possible sentence of 30 years in prison.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: New York man admits making series of dark web videos at NKY Airbnbs
Reporting by Quinlan Bentley, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
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