MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Charges have been dropped against the campaign treasurer for former Miami-Dade County mayoral candidate Alex Otaola, who was arrested last year on accusations that he had sexually abused and given drugs to a teenage boy, Local 10 learned Tuesday.
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According to a no action memo dated Jan. 31, the alleged victim, who is 17 years old, recanted the allegations three times since Andy Santana’s arrest in October.
Prosecutors said the teen was subpoenaed for an in-person interview in November and recanted the allegations against Santana, 33, claiming that he was approached by a masked person the day before he went to the police station and was threatened to make the allegations.
The teen allegedly claimed that he didn’t report the masked person to police because he thought he would be endangering his family in Cuba.
According to the memo, the teen did present a photo of him kissing Santana on the lips and said the photo was taken to make his boyfriend back in Cuba jealous.
He claimed nothing sexual occurred with Santana after that, the memo stated.
According to police, Santana, of Hialeah, was arrested in October after the teen claimed that Santana had reached out to him on Instagram, engaged in conversation with him and then sexually abused him beginning in May 2024.
The teen reported the unlawful sexual activity — which sometimes included bleeding, handcuffs, and ignoring his pleas to stop — continued at the home where he lives with his mother and at Santana’s apartment, according to police. The teen also accused Santana of offering him alkyl nitrites, a drug known as “poppers.”
The teen told a detective that after their “relationship” ended, Santana handed him a vape and told him to smoke it without letting him know that it had marijuana, which impaired him just before the last unlawful sexual activity the two had on Sept. 15 in the back seat of Santana’s car, police said.
According to the arrest report, Santana refused to comment when presented with the victim’s photographic evidence at the police station.
He initially faced charges of unlawful sexual activity with a minor and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.