Over 70 Arrested In Child Pornography Bust In The New York City Area

New Tang Dynasty Television
May 21, 2014

http://www.ntd.tv/en/news/us/20140521/146648-over-70-arrested-in-child-pornography-bust-in-the-new-york-city-area.html

Two police officers, a Little League coach, and a mother were among 71 people arrested across the New York City-area in the largest-ever roundup of people who share child pornography online, federal and local law enforcement said Wednesday (May 21).

The 70 men and one woman came from all five boroughs of New York City and the surrounding suburbs, including New Jersey and Long Island, and range in age from their 20s to 50s, authorities said.

The investigation was led by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), whose agents identified an online network sharing child pornography, said Special Agent James Hayes.

"These defendants come from all walks of life," Hayes told reporters.

"And other than the fact that all but one of them is a man, there is no other discernible pattern amongst them. This operation puts the lie to the classic stereotypical profile that child predators are nothing more than an unemployed drifters. Many of the defendants are in fact well educated and successful in the private and professional lives. They worked as registered nurses, paramedics, caretakers for mentally ill adults, computer programmers and architects," he added.

Among those charged was a paramedic, two nurses, an airline pilot, an au pair, a person previously convicted of child sexual abuse, two police officers and a mother accused of producing pornography involving her own child.

Several of the individuals have young children at home, Hayes said.

Those arrested face a battery of state and federal charges, including distributing, producing and possessing child pornography.

Authorities became aware of the file-sharing ring after the January arrest of Brian Fanelli, a former police chief in Mount Pleasant, 24 miles (38 km) north of New York City and the March arrest of a Brooklyn rabbi, Samuel Waldman, on child pornography charges.

Both men's computers were linked to a peer-to-peer network that allowed users to share caches of child pornography while easily importing materials from other computers linked on the network, authorities said.

Both men have pleaded not guilty.

With the help of the New York City Police Department, investigators "surreptitiously" connected to the peer-to-peer network, which at times had up to 3,000 people searching for child pornography, Hayes said.

During the execution of nearly 90 search warrants, agents seized 600 desktop and laptop computers, tablets, phones, thumb drives and hard drives containing tens of thousands of images and videos.

Officials said the investigation was just beginning and that it was very likely that it would expand.

"The scope of this investigation as evidenced by the number of cases spread across multiple jurisdictions is extraordinary. And the underlying conduct is appalling. No one should make a mistake here about this -- that the images of child sexual assault capture actual real crimes being committed against real children. And each time that one of those recordings of a violent sexual assault is downloaded and viewed by a stranger over the Internet, that child is being victimized all over again," said Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance.

Those arrested in the sweep face between seven and 25 years in prison if convicted.