When Homeland Security investigators began looking into a series of videos depicting child sexual abuse that were circulating on the dark web, they traced them back to properties in Northern Kentucky, court documents state.
They later discovered that 24-year-old Randy Moreno, of New York City, was renting Airbnbs in Erlanger and Elsmere to produce child sexual abuse material that caught the attention of Interpol, an international policing organization, a federal agent wrote in a criminal complaint.
Moreno pleaded not guilty on July 11 during an arraignment in federal court in Covington, where he’s charged with producing child sexual abuse material and interstate travel with the intent to engage in sexual conduct with a minor.
His attorney declined to comment when approached by The Enquirer outside the courtroom.
The complaint states that Moreno communicated with an underage girl via Snapchat and twice rented Airbnb properties in Northern Kentucky during the summer of 2024, where he recorded sex acts with the girl.
“Well I was gonna rent out a spot to stay the night, it’s not that far from you,” Moreno wrote in a Snapchat message to the girl before their first meeting in June of last year.
The girl was interviewed in May at the Northern Kentucky Children’s Advocacy Center and told investigators that she met for sex twice with a man from New York named “Santiago” at two different Airbnbs. She said the man recorded the sex acts with a cellphone.
The agent said in court documents that “Santiago” is Moreno’s alias. The girl identified Moreno by his Airbnb profile photo.
According to the complaint, Virginia authorities had also launched an investigation into Moreno after an underage girl reported inappropriate sexual contact by a man named “Santiago” from New York.
Homeland Security investigators began reviewing a series of child sexual abuse material titled “HEXAGONRUG” in February 2025, the complaint states. The series contained at least two images and 10 videos of child sexual abuse and was circulating on darknet forums.
The series was listed in Interpol’s International Child Sexual Exploitation database.
A user of one of those forums posted Moreno’s Telegram username and identified the account as belonging to the videos’ owner, according to the agent’s affidavit.
Investigators used metadata to uncover that most of the files in the series were created at the Erlanger and Elsmere properties. The federal authorities later used Airbnb and travel records to identify Moreno as a suspect. They also found that his passport photo resembled the adult male pictured in one of the child sexual abuse videos.
Moreno was arrested on June 10 in the Woodside neighborhood of Queens in New York City.
He is currently scheduled to go on trial Sept. 15 before U.S. District Judge David Bunning. If convicted as charged, Moreno faces a possible sentence of up to 30 years in prison.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: New York man caught Interpol’s attention with series of child sex abuse videos made in NKY
Reporting by Quinlan Bentley, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
