Turks and Caicos Man Arrested, Accused of Sextortion of Missouri Teen

ST. LOUIS - A man from the Turks and Caicos has been arrested after being indicted and accused of the sextortion of a Missouri teen.

Alexander Gardiner, 23, of Providenciales, was indicted by a grand jury in U.S. District Court in St. Louis on May 22 on one count of coercion and enticement of a minor.

Gardiner was arrested in the Miami International Airport on August 8. He appeared in court in St. Louis Tuesday and pleaded not guilty to the charges.

"Although many perpetrators who seek to exploit and blackmail minors do so from overseas, we will not let borders keep us from stopping sextortion and seeking justice," said U.S. Attorney Sayler A. Fleming

"A large number of sextortion investigations have identified the perpetrators as living outside of the United States," said Special Agent in Charge Ashley T. Johnson of the FBI St. Louis Division. "Investigating sextortion is one of the top priorities in the FBI's Violent Crimes Against Children program. In addition, the FBI provides support and resources to help victims and their families during their time of need."

The indictment accuses Gardiner of attempting to coerce a minor into engaging in sexually explicit conduct between Sept. 24, 2018, and June 30, 2023.

An August 14 detention order says Gardiner is accused of making contact with a minor in Missouri via social media and enticing the minor to send him sexually explicit images. Gardiner then demanded money from the minor by threatening to send those images to others, and did post an explicit video on social media, the order says. A motion seeking Gardiner's detention alleges that images of other teenage victims were discovered in Gardiner's iCloud account. Gardiner used the screen name noahmonn on Snapchat, algardiner33 and algardiner22 on Google and @jewelsbaits on X, court records show.

Charges set forth in an indictment are merely accusations and do not constitute proof of guilt. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty.

The enticement charge is punishable by at least 10 years in prison, with a maximum term of life.

Others who believe they may have been targets of a sextortion attempt should contact local law enforcement or the FBI by calling Call 1-800-CALL-FBI, contacting your local FBI office, or reporting it online at tips.fbi.gov or cybertipline.org.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) has detailed information on resources for sextortion victims, including videos and discussion guides to help explain the problem to children and adults. They also have a step-by-step guide on how to report pictures or videos of children to social media companies and flag pictures so that the companies will seek out and remove the images.

The FBI investigated the case with the assistance of the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jillian Anderson is prosecuting the case.

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