Feds arrest 190 alleged child predators in massive undercover operation

Nearly 200 child predators have been arrested and 18 victims rescued in a nationwide undercover operation, federal authorities announced Friday.
The month-long investigation -- called "Operation Orion" -- was conducted in May by special agents from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations unit.
The operation targeted individuals who "possessed, received, transported, distributed, advertised or produced images or videos of child pornography," ICE officials said in a press release Friday.
The investigation led to the arrests of 190 alleged child predators. The majority of the arrests were made in the U.S., though authorities said individuals in Spain, the Philippines, Argentina and the United Kingdom were also taken into custody.
"With the advent of summer vacation, children may have more time and access to the Internet, making this a good time to talk to them about online dangers," ICE Director John Morton said in a statement. "Many of the child exploitation cases under Operation Orion began with a child or teen chatting with someone he or she met online.
"Let this operation be a warning to anyone who would think they can use the Internet to exploit children: we are out there looking for you, we will find you, and you will be prosecuted," he said.
The sweep included the arrest of 28-year-old Andrew Hallock, of Sebastian, Fla., for possession of child pornography and the "illegal sexual enticement of a 15-year-old victim he met online," according to authorities. Another suspect, 35-year-old Cedric Conner, of Lafayette, La., was arrested May 4 for allegedly producing child pornography and sexually assaulting a 7-year-old victim whom he babysat.

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LOS ANGELES: Police have arrested 190 people and rescued 18 children in a major US crackdown on child pornography, including some detained in Europe and elsewhere, judicial authorities said Friday.

Most of the arrests in Operation Orion through the month of May took place in the United States, but suspects were also picked up in Argentina, Britain, the Philippines and Spain.

“Many of the child exploitation cases under Operation Orion began with a child or teen chatting with someone he or she met online,” said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director John Morton.

“Let this operation be a warning to anyone who would think they can use the Internet to exploit children: we are out there looking for you, we will find you, and you will be prosecuted,” he added in a statement.

Operation Orion targeted individuals “who possessed, received, transported, distributed, advertised or produced images or videos of child pornography,” the ICE statement said.

Among those arrested was a 35-year-old individual in Louisiana suspected of using the seven-year-old he babysat to make child pornography, and a 35-year-old in Oklahoma who offered money for sex to a 14-year-old victim he met on a social networking site.

In Michigan, a 54-year-old allegedly persuaded an underage boy to join him in illegal sexual conduct that he then photographed, while a 28-year-old was found to have more than 1,200 images and 109 videos of suspected child pornography on computers and media storage devices.

In Los Angeles eight men were arrested, including one who met his alleged 12-year-old victim on Facebook, and who was detained after agents from ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) section pretended to be her online.

Theodore Perez, 29, was arrested on May 1 when he arrived at a shopping mall to meet a 12-year-old girl he met on Facebook.
“In text messages and telephone conversations with undercover HSI agents who had assumed the girl’s identity, Perez allegedly indicated he wanted to commit multiple lewd acts with the child,” it said.

Perez was charged with enticing a minor to commit lewd acts and is being held on $100,000 bond.

No details of the arrests conducted overseas were disclosed. ICE said they included some in Argentina, Britain, the Philippines and Spain.

In a separate operation announced by prosecutors in Indiana, nine people were prosecuted following the dismantling of an international child pornography ring which also pursued suspects in Sweden, Serbia and the Netherlands.

“Defendants … have been referred to federal prosecutors and law enforcement in other districts across the country and around the world,” said US Attorney for the southern district of Indiana Joseph Hogsett.

“This operation uncovered a dangerous and depraved group of criminals who were devoted to trading sexually explicit images of children under the age of five,” added Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer in a statement issued by the Department of Justice (DoJ) about Operation Bulldog.

For the Operation Orion, the ICE director said the arrests, and the timing, could be a good opportunity to warn children about the dangers of online predators.

“With the advent of summer vacation, children may have more time and access to the Internet, making this a good time to talk to them about online dangers,”said Morton.

ICE is part of the Department of Homeland Security, which in the fiscal year ended September 30 initiated more than 3,000 cases into child exploitation and made 1,455 arrests.

In that same year, the HSI computer forensics program examined the equivalent of 16.5 million filing cabinets of data related to child exploitation cases.
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:cheering:

GAINESVILLE, Va. (WUSA) - Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have arrested nearly 200 alleged child pornographer and in the process have rescued 18 minors who were being victimized.

Agents arrested three people in Maryland and three in Northern Virginia but very little is known about five of the cases becdause they are still under investigatin, but what is known about one case is very chilling.

For nearly a year ICE agents monitored downloads from computers in Kenneth Fish's home in Gainesville, Virginia. This past May, a neighbor who asked not to be identified said agents raided the house in a neighborhood full of young children.

According to the criminal complaint, Fish, a 45-year-old stay-at- home father of three young children used the E Donkey download videos of prepubescent girls engaged in sex.

Operation Orion netted a total of 190 suspected child pornographers in the US, Argentina, the Philippines and the United Kingdom, says Peter Edge, deputy director of Homeland Security Investigations.

While the investigation identified only 18 minors, Edge says the number of victims could actually be in the hundreds and he stressed the need for parent to be vigilant and warn their kids about online predators.
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This is amazing! All the way from VA to FL!! Thanks, LM!

A Lafayette man is one of 190 people arrested during a month-long, nationwide operation that targeted people who possessed, received, transported, distributed, advertised or produced images or videos of child pornography. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security Investigations conducted the investigation. In all, authorities rescued 18 victims during the operation.

Cedric Conner, 35, of Lafayette, is accused of producing child pornography and is accused of sexually assaulting a 7-year-old girl he babysat. Last year in October, Lafayette Parish Sheriff's Deputies arrested Conner for allegedly performing lewd acts and taking nude pictures of the girl. "With the advent of summer vacation, children may have more time and access to the Internet, making this a good time to talk to them about online dangers. Many of the child exploitation cases under Operation Orion began with a child or teen chatting with someone he or she met online," said ICE Director John Morton. "Let this operation be a warning to anyone who would think they can use the Internet to exploit children: we are out there looking for you, we will find you, and you will be prosecuted."

Operation Orion took place May 1 to 31. Arrests were made by HSI special agents and partner law enforcement agencies. The majority of arrests were made throughout the United States, but also included arrests in Spain, the Philippines, Argentina and the United Kingdom.
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Wrapitup wrote:This is amazing! All the way from VA to FL!! Thanks, LM!

And thanks to lisette for bringing this to our attention! :cheering:

Thanks so much, Lisette!