A Transportation Security Administration agent at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport was arrested in Fort Lauderdale this week on charges of attempted production of child pornography and sending obscene material to a minor.
The TSA agent confessed to all of his charges during an interview with police.
NBC Miami reports TSA agent Gary Linder, 27, asked an 11-year-old girl the color of her nipples, to shower with him and for photos of herself masturbating, a federal court criminal complaint says.
Linder also sent the 11-year-old girl pictures of his erect penis. Linder became a TSA agent in 2016.
On February 18, 2018 Linder began explicitly text messaging an 11-year-old girl who he knew as a family friend. Linder sent the following messages to the girl: “Have you hit puberty yet?,” ”Well, who knows how you’re gonna develop?” “Lol you might grow some big boobies,” and ”What color are your nipples?”
But on February 19, the father of the girl saw the messages and reported it to local police.
On February 20 an undercover officer was assigned to the case and took over the girl’s phone via consent and pretended to be the 11-year-old girl in further communications with Linder.
Over the next month and a half Linder thought he was talking to the girl, but he was really talking to an undercover cop. Linder texted instructions to the girl’s phone which included pornographic visual aids on how to masturbate; requests for her to take selfies while she was shirtless or masturbating; questions about coming over during her Spring Break to shower with him, and requests for her to wash his penis.
Linder exchanged more than 1,000 texts in about two months, often reaching out to the girl while she was at school and as late as midnight to 1 a.m.
Linder and the undercover officer agreed on meeting together on April 4 for sex in his car. The undercover agent told Linder to show up at the park with two glazed donuts. Linder showed up as planned and was arrested on site.
Linder told police that he is attracted to young girls between the ages of 6 years old to 14 years old. Linder also indicated that he had been communicating with several other minors. One minor was 16 years old and the other was 14 years old.
