Prosecutors drop sex-with-a-minor charges against former Alex Otaola treasurer

Alex Otaola’s Treasurer, Alex Santana, is busted for having sex with a 17-year-old boy.

Miami-Dade prosecutors will not seek charges against Andy Santana, a former campaign treasurer for conservative influencer and one-time county mayoral candidate Alex Otaola, for allegedly having sex with a minor.

State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle’s Office said in a memo that it no longer has a case after the youth in question retracted his complaint.

The 17-year-old told prosecutors he’d been coerced into accusing Santana by a masked man who suggested harm could befall the boy’s family in Cuba unless he complied.

Telemundo 51 first reported on the case’s dismissal Friday. Miami-Dade Clerk records show the case closed on Jan. 31, with all charges dismissed. Santana had pleaded not guilty and demanded the case go to trial.

“I retracted my statement because it was a complaint made under threat,” the teen told Telemundo in Spanish. “There is no sexual evidence that we had sexual relations.”

Police arrested Santana, 33, in early October, after Otaola placed a distant third in the Miami-Dade Mayor’s race. He was booked on one felony charge of having sex with a minor and one misdemeanor charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor after the unnamed boy told authorities they’d had a four-month-long sexual relationship.

According to the arrest affidavit, the teenager reported to Hialeah police that between May and September 2024, he and Santana had various levels of sexual contact, up to and including oral and anal sex. The boy also “produced lewd pictures, and a video corroborating his allegations,” the affidavit said.

Santana — whose full name is listed as “Andy Santana Zamora” in the arrest affidavit — also allegedly encouraged the victim, identified as R.M. in the affidavit, to use drugs before sex and, on at least one occasion, handcuffed and raped him.

R.M. told police Santana ended contact with him last month after growing “concerned with potential information of him and the victim engaging in sexual activity disclosed on social media.”

Before Santana’s arrest, several amateur TikTok sleuths compiled video and photographic footage of Sanatana and a young man they claim is R.M. In one video, Santana and a young man with a distinctive, red neck tattoo appear to be recording themselves in bed.

Otaola confirmed shortly after Santana’s arrest that he was indeed his former treasurer. He said the accusations were “shameful” and the charges he faced was “truly repudiable.”

“I have no control over the private lives of my employees, and although I appreciate them a lot, I strongly condemn any illegal or morally questionable act. Each person will have to face responsibility for their own actions and prove their innocence,” he said in a statement.

“Let me be clear: I have nothing to do with this situation and I have nothing to make a statement about it.”