A North Florida summer youth camp counselor is behind bars, accused of attempting to pay for child sexual abuse material using a Bitcoin-linked account, according to the state's Attorney General.
Coty Streit, 31, from Bell, a town around 30 miles north of Gainesville, is facing 15 counts of possession of child sexual abuse material, one count of transmission of child sexual abuse material by electronic device, and one count of unlawful use of a two-way communication device.
Investigators were alerted about Streit when, in March, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) received a cyber tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), according to the Attorney General.
The tip alerted the FDLE that Streit was attempting to send Cash App payments to a Bitcoin wallet associated with trafficking child abuse sexual material.
FDLE then obtained subpoenas for Streit's cell phone records, which revealed two additional NCMEC cyber tips in which Streit uploaded and shared material from his Instagram account.
"It should be clear by now that no one will get away with preying on children in Florida, in-person or online," said Attorney General James Uthmeier. "I'm thankful for FDLE's leadership on this investigation and for our law enforcement partners who got this predator out of the community before he was able to be near kids again."
Streit is currently held at the Gilchrist County Jail on a $1.7 million bond. If convicted, he faces up to 85 years in the Florida Department of Corrections.