VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. — Local law enforcement agencies are getting a huge cut of the money from the sale of a Daytona Beach hotel which was at the center of a massive child pornography ring bust.
The FBI was able to seize and sell the Desert Inn, now an empty building along U.S. A1A, following the 2011 bust.
Court records show Dennis Devlin, the man behind the child exploitation, used the hotel to make child pornography. Devlin, the hotel's owner, was sentenced to 15 years in a federal prison.
Agents said local investigators were key in taking him down and that they are now being being rewarded.
"As part of his sentence, Devlin had to forfeit his interest in the Desert Inn, the hotel he used to facilitate the crimes for which he was convicted," said Lee Bentley, U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Florida.
Following forfeiture of the hotel, its sale brought $1.5 million. Four local law enforcement agencies will get $400,000 of that money.
In 2011, those agencies helped go after Devlin when a concerned grandmother told her story to the FBI of how Devlin victimized her 13-year-old grandson. She spoke with us three years ago.
"It took a lot of courage for him to go with me and tell his story," the woman told Channel 9 three years ago.
During the investigation agents discovered Devlin used the boy to produce child pornography with the help of Michael Ehmen, who was also sentenced to prison
Agents said when it came time to search the 220-room hotel, a large team consisting of local detectives helped.
They said they uncovered pictures and DVDs hidden the Devin's bathroom ceiling tiles that contained explicit pictures the teen and other children.
The $400,000 will go to the Volusia County Sheriff's Office, Daytona Beach and South Daytona police departments and Daytona Beach Shores Public Safety.