Citrus Springs Man Sentenced To Thirty Years In Federal Prison For Producing Child Sex Abuse Material

Ocala, Florida – Senior United States District Judge John Antoon II has sentenced Dustin Shane Sandiford (31, Citrus Springs) to 30 years in federal prison for production of child sex abuse material. Sandiford had pleaded guilty on September 3, 2021.

According to court documents and testimony, agents seized a cellphone from Sandiford on December 2, 2020. The phone contained a cloud storage application tied to accounts Sandiford used to hoard more than 17,000 images and videos of child sex abuse. Further investigation revealed that Sandiford had enlisted another Citrus County resident to create child sex abuse images of an underaged relative and then send the images to Sandiford. This material was also found on one of Sandiford’s cloud storage accounts.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney William S. Hamilton.

This is another case brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.