Overview
- Maricopa County deputies took 34-year-old Stefon Santos into custody and booked him on sexual-exploitation charges in Arizona with additional charges pending in Indiana.
- The probe began after Cash App alerted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to suspicious payments that led investigators to explicit-image exchanges with a teenage girl in Indiana.
- Investigators say the relationship dated to 2024 when the victim was 13 and that Santos traveled across state lines to meet the minor on at least two occasions.
- Officers seized multiple phones and other digital evidence and are conducting cellphone forensics and search-warrant follow-ups while urging anyone with information or potential victimization to contact MCSO.
- Records and investigators show Santos served about six years after a 2011 sexual-exploitation conviction, and detectives say he used apps such as Snapchat, Roblox, Telegram, WhatsApp and Cash App in the alleged conduct.