A 26-year-old man from Coral Springs is charged with sex offenses after an FBI agent posed as a 15-year-old and arranged to meet up with him.
Miami Herald file photo
A Coral Springs man was arrested at a CVS on Saturday as he was trying to meet with a 15-year-old to engage in sex acts, only to find the FBI waiting for him, court documents show.
Investigators staged the sting operation for 26-year-old William Gangler on March 21 after an individual came forward a couple weeks earlier to report Gangler had paid him to perform sexual acts on camera years ago, agents wrote in a probable cause affidavit.
The victim in the case, who’s now 21, told law enforcement that when he was around 15, Gangler reached out to him on the messaging app Telegram to produce foot fetish videos, according to the affidavit.
The victim alleged on two different occasions, he went to Gangler’s house in Coral Springs, where Gangler paid him to create sexual videos.
When law enforcement began looking into Gangler, investigators said they learned his online activity had previously been flagged for possible child pornography, and they found two police reports against him.
According to a 2017 report when he was a minor, he’s accused of sexually abusing a teen for years, although he denied the allegations. In another from 2021, he’s accused of paying someone for sexual favors concerning feet.
As part of the operation, an undercover FBI agent reached out to Gangler on Telegram about buying sexually explicit videos. The agent sent $50, then $120, then $180, to receive a handful of videos, one of which included Gangler’s face, according to the affidavit.
A few days later, an undercover agent reached out to Gangler pretending to be a friend of the initial victim who came forward to law enforcement in March, documents show.
The agent posed as a 15-year-old boy trying to make some money by producing videos, messages show. The two messaged for about a week before arranging for Gangler to send an Uber for the “teen” from Miramar to a CVS in Coral Springs, where Gangler said he’d pick up the teen and bring him to his house, investigators said.
On March 21, the FBI Miami Violent Crimes Against Children Squad set up surveillance at Gangler’s house and the CVS on the corner of Sample Road and Coral Springs Drive. When Gangler arrived to pick up the “teen,” law enforcement took him into custody.
Investigators also searched his home, where they reported finding filming equipment and illegal photos.
Gangler is charged with attempted enticement of a minor to engage in illicit sexual behavior, attempted production of child pornography and possession of child pornography.
He remains in custody in Broward County’s Paul Rein Detention Facility in Pompano Beach on no bond as of March 23.
