Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Man Busted for Using AI to Make Child Porn: Attorney General

Episode Date: May 7, 2026

Richard Gallagher faces 12 felony counts of child sexual exploitation in New Mexico. State agents searched Gallagher's home in December 2025 after receiving a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Body-worn camera footage shows agents approaching Gallagher and searching his home. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy digs into the details of the case in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5GUEST: Mark RogersCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Police department, search warrant. A police raid on a man accused of using AI to create disgusting images of children. Images so vile, we can barely describe them. Oh, no. All I had with my coffee and I did look my ticket. I don't have my lighter. I'm Ann Chinat Levy, and this is Crime Fix. You know, there are people out there using AI to create dark and disgusting things on their phones.

involving children. It's called child sex abuse material. And the way it's described in this case is so vile that we can't really even repeat it. Law enforcement in New Mexico says that Richard Gallagher was using a number of apps to create these images and that he was actually using images of real children to do it. Gallagher is in a lot of trouble facing 12 felony counts of sexual exploitation of a child. He's accused of possessing and using AI to manufacture this child sex abuse material. An agent said in September of 2025, a company called Synchronos Technologies, a cloud storage

service submitted a tip to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about a user possessing child sex abuse material. That's what led them to Richard Gallagher. The warrant for his arrest includes descriptions of the images. and some of these children are younger than eight. What's that? Go ahead and step out for us real quick. Why?

We'll explain to you in a bit. Is there a lock on here? No, we're going to fall down. It falls down? Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay.

Okay. That's okay. We'll talk to you in a bit. Can you go to the officer right there since that side's open, please? Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Just hold tight.

We'll get everything for you. On December 9th, 25, police armed with a warrant went to Richard Gallagher's home in Albuquerque. They were looking for Gallagher and electronics. It sucks as it has the grounds to hear as well. Look, my cheaper, I don't have my lighter. Sorry, I just want to see if I have my lighter. No, not right now. They didn't have keys on them, right? Yeah, then coming through the back might be easier rather than just him back into the house. The agents have Gallagher's phone, which will be very important in the investigation.

After he's let out, other agents move in to search the house. To the right, it's just, there's a counter and then it looks like another room. I don't know if that's a living room or what that is, but it goes deeper past the cap room. Place department, anybody inside? Let yourself be known. Okay. Go ahead and put some of the left as well. So I'm ahead and left.

All right, so Mitch and Holly if you want to get in there. Just double check, couch and that whole area. Clear over here. Clear over here. Make your presence no! Closets, I don't know. So Dennis and Cass just went into the garage. And if you want to unlock that front door, Mitch.

Gotcha. The agents went through the house, which they described as cluttered. They found a number of electronic devices. As they searched, other agents spoke to Richard Gallagher. An agent wrote in the warrant, Mr. Gallagher was provided with information regarding the investigation related to an internet crimes against children's cybertip. Mr. Gallagher stated that he scam hunts online, which involves creating fake profiles and visiting dating sites to look for scammers. Mr. Gallagher said that he would typically make himself look different on his profiles, such as slimming himself down or giving himself abdominals.

Mr. Gallagher did admit that he had images of himself that would show his genitalia. The agent continued. The affiant informed Mr. Gallagher that the cybertip was from Synchronos, which is a cloud service, and that there were reports of child sex abuse material from his account. Mr. Gallagher stated that he did not know he had the cloud. The affiant asked Mr. Gallagher if investigators would find any images of new children on his devices. Mr. Gallagher responded, you might. Mr. Gallagher said that those images were from a long time ago and that they were mostly just AI. The affiant asked Mr. Gallagher if the images of the new children provided him with sexual gratification and Mr. Gallagher responded,

yeah, I guess so. Mr. Gallagher said that he had not been content for very long and that he was just lonely. The agents said they recovered images from Gallagher's phone that showed he was using apps like AI mirror to create the child sex abuse material and that some of it featured real images of children with himself. Agents included this table that showed a record of conversations that they said Gallagher had with another person on telegram. an encrypted app. A month after the search warrant, agents returned to take Richard Gallagher into custody. How's it going, Richard? Mr. Gallagher? I just checked us today. Yeah. Brayorne, do you? Can I just lock up my house? We'll take care of all that. We'll take care of it. Oh, I have to call Lizzie Bunker.

That's my lawyer. Okay. Ow, that kind of hurts. I've never had teeth. Get them double locks there. You've just got double lock please so they don't get any tighter on you, okay? Okay. You know where your house keys are?

Well, actually the front door is locked, the back door isn't. Okay. But you need house keys to lock them? You guys, they're in my pocket. Okay. We'll get them. We'll get your, we'll get your, uh, keys out your pocket, okay? But let's just go ahead and step over here this vehicle,

and we'll get your keys and we'll get your house locked up there. Get your house locked up for you, okay? Okay. Why? I just checked on that nice. We're gonna go on my own. I'd really like to put my shoes on. Okay, well, do you have shoes on?

You have shoes? I mean, once you get over to you, and we say, they don't get your shoes. Oh my God. Let's get over here, Sweaky. We're gonna patch you down too real quick, so. You have my teeth in my pocket. I got all kinds of, no, an al-cooker.

Step over here for me? I was going right up to guess here. So to really break down this case, I want to bring in Greg Rogers. He's a retired FBI agent, and he actually specialized in investigating these types of cases for many years. And he also testifies as an expert. You know, Greg, thank you so much for coming on. My pleasure. What is your take just on this case from what we're reading in the affidavit?

Well, it's a very interesting case, but it's luckily, last I researched, 45 or 46 states now have changed their statute so that they can address AI images. It was until not too many years ago, you had to prove that there was actually a victim, that there was actually a child in these images. And that was very difficult. And oftentimes, especially when the images were coming from overseas, a lot of Eastern European countries and Southeast Asian countries. But now almost all the state statutes and federal. statutes include AI generated images.

And so this case is interesting, though, because it's a little bit of both. What this defendant was doing was taking photos of real children off the internet and enhancing them with an AI app to put them in child sexual abuse material, CSAM situations with him. Right. So he was taking real children, you know, just pictures off the internet. It might be them at a swimming pool or with their family somewhere at Disneyland. Who knows? You know, but he was taking these real photos and then morphing them with an AI app to make them naked showing their genitals and often in most of the pictures touching his genitals. But it wasn't even, really his generals. It was an AI enhanced, very large, he was putting on himself and having the

kids hold it. So it was, this is an interesting case because it's a combination of both. It's actually real children and AI, so it's, which is unusual. Often these guys that are very computer savvy you're just creating AI images completely making them up of, you know, children that don't really exist. But this is an interesting case because it's a combination of both. And I was going to ask you about that because, I mean, if this was my kid, if this guy got my stuff, my child's image off of Facebook or wherever and then made pornography out of it or anybody did that, I would be livid. And what is so scary about the allegations in this case is the fact that he is accused of, as you mentioned, making this stuff with him, with images of himself.

And so that makes me kind of freaked out because I'm thinking to myself, is this guy, obviously he's got a fantasy world going on in his head. But is he going to act on that fantasy at some point? I mean, is there going to be a tipping point? And so you've got experience in these cases. Is there a concern with that? There's a huge concern with that. And the reason is, and I don't mean to sound melodramatic about it, it's just the unfortunate truth. These individuals spend hours and hours a day living in this fantasy that they have about having sexual interactions with children.

And its research is clearly shown, and my casework's clearly shown. It's not unlike when you look at some prolific serial rapists and serial killers like Ted Bundy or Paul Bernardo, they started as peeping Tom's. And you spend hours a day being peeping Tom's, and well, then you elevate that to actually committing rapes. And then, you know, in cases like Bernardo, after you do 20 or 30 rapes, you elevate that to killing your victims. There's always an escalation. And in child pornography cases, it's the same. You have individuals like this that spend hours a day in this fantasy world and eventually they're going to act on it. I can't tell you how many cases we worked where, you know, in interviews, that's what they would tell us eventually. And even more, unfortunately, a lot of those cases, they end up perpetrating on the easiest target.

And that's often family members. And it's, you know, when you spend three, four hours a day in this fantasy world, you're eventually going to have a very strong need to try to live out that fantasy. And that's what happens. And that's what's so scary here. You know, what's also very scary to me is it sounds like this guy, I mean, he's an older guy. and the agents are making it sound like in the Safed David that he is pretty savvy when it comes to using these apps. And he was accused of talking with people on telegram, which is an encrypted service.

Right. You know, it sounds like a lot of bad stuff goes on on telegram. And so there's this whole underground. I mean, it just seems to me like you could probably never root it out, Greg. I mean, as hard as you worked as an FBI agent or a state agent, you can never root this stuff out. It is like a cancer or a weed that just cannot, you can kind of, you can pull it up and pull it out and try to, you know, stamp out as much of it as you want, but you're not going to be able to get it all. And that's what's so scary about this. And I think it's probably more prevalent than people realize.

no sadly you're not going to get an argument for me about that i used to do a lot of presentations at uh schools and uh to parent groups and stuff and um usually talking about how they needed to be much more interactive with their children uh in what apps they were on and conversations they were having and you know these would be at one or two in the afternoon and just to convince them that uh wasn't being overly dramatic with them, I would say, I'm going to get online right now and I'm going to go into this certain room and I'm going to act like I'm a 14-year-old boy and I can guarantee you within a matter of minutes someone's going to be hidden on me and trying to meet, meet up with me and that individual is going to be a perp, going to be a pedophile.

And it was that easy. I mean, it's that prevalent. Unfortunately, The one of the downsides of the Internet is, you know, if you were a pedophile and wanted to get images and things like this in the before the internet, it's very difficult. You had to order these. You had to order actual, like, magazines and pictures. Most of those were coming out of Eastern Europe in the 70s and 80s. it was very dangerous because the postal service, the way we worked those cases then, was you just, you know, you looked for people who had PO boxes that were getting, you know, a lot of mail from Romania, you know, or from some eastern block country.

And then you checked the mail. You had a search warrant. You check the mail. And oftentimes it was child pornography. And then that's how those people got arrested. But it was very difficult. and you were doing this as an individual. It wasn't like you could go into a bar or some club

and talk to other people about being pedophiles. I mean, it was a very sort of solo type thing. Once the Internet opened up and all of these chat rooms and groups like normal, you know, it was the biggest enabling thing, that ever happened. Now you're talking to millions, literally, of other people around the world, and it sort of validates. You're like, oh, yeah, there's all sorts of people like me. And so they get in these encrypted rooms, they share images. Those are very, you know, if you're computer

savvy and everything you're doing is on a VPN, you're in encrypted rooms, you're dealing with people who have no idea who you really are, you all have fake names, all those sorts of things. Those are tough cases. The only way we get into those is we arrest somebody. We get them to cooperate with us. They give us their pass codes. We get in there and we act like we're them. I mean, there's ways to do that. But unfortunately, your analysis is accurate. It is so prevalent and so commonplace, this is like the old days when we used to use the term the war on drugs. I mean, you're never going to stop all the narcotics use in the United States. You just do what you can do.

You're never going to stop all of the pedophilia and the child sex crimes that are going on. And as I indicated earlier, I did a lot of work overseas, mainly in Southeast Asia, with child sex tourism. And it's unbelievable how prevalent it is. I mean, there are these clubs in Cambodia, Thailand, that I have, the Philippines that I would go to. And they are packed with American citizens, Australian citizens. I mean, you go there and these people, these people are professional folks. This is not an inexpensive hobby. and yeah it's like you know when you first start working those cases you think how prevalent can this be

and then you go in these clubs and there's hundreds of people in there and they're there to have sex of kids I mean that's this is this is a huge problem and it's you know it's not going to get we're going to keep working as hard as we can state local and federal law enforcement in every single state all work together on internet crimes against children task forces. We have people that work this vigorously, but no one, no one believes we're solving this problem just by arresting these folks. The reason you work these cases is when you take one of these people off the street, that person's not going to be perpetrating on any children anymore.

get some gratification out of that, but you're absolutely fooling yourself if you think you can arrest them all. There's too many. And there was an interesting point that they wrote about related to this Gallagher. And it's like kind of just laying the groundwork for everything for the warrant. But this kind of is making me kind of concerned and looking at whether or not in thinking and wondering, are they investigating further to see if there has been any engagement because of his age? Because they wrote about how these collectors not only use these materials for their own gratification, but they have also been known to use these materials to lower inhibitions of children. They are attempting to seduce to arouse the selected child partner or to demonstrate desired

sexual acts. Right. Oh, I mean, it's just beyond, beyond creepy, beyond belief. Yeah, no, and I can assure you they are interviewing everybody, all of his family members. We take these cases very seriously. It's not like he's arrested and that stops. I can also assure you that he's been offered the opportunity to give up his passcodes and to let us get on and act like we're him. you know, we do that real quickly because now that the arrest, you know, now that everybody knows he's been arrested, that's a dead stick. But immediately, when he's arrested, if we can get on and try to identify other people that he's talking with and that he's trading with, all of that happens. There's a whole lot of investigation that's going on immediately when he's arrested. And even now, we're,

interviewing family members. There's a sincere, vigorous effort made to try to determine if he's perpetrated on any children. And in a lot of these cases, if they end up in plea agreements, it's not at all uncommon to require that they take a polygraph and pass indicating that they haven't, if they're saying they haven't perpetrated on any children, I don't even know how many polygraphs I participated in with people. I would always, if that was part of a plea agreement, I always was my standard practice to say, well, they got to pass a poly on that, on the not perpetrating. It's disturbing. Yeah. Disturbing as can be. Well, thank you so much. Greg Rogers. Thank you so much. Always my pleasure.

And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Janette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.