Unassuming teenager boys were chatting with who they thought were same-aged girls online. Somewhere in the online chat, the conversation turned sexual. Soon, many of the boys were revealing themselves nude to the assumed girls via Skype or Webcams.
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Above: Sanitized screen grab of the child pornography website on the Darknet’s Onion Router, or Tor, network. The child exploitation enterprise was dismantled by HSI and USPIS. The name of the website is not released for operational reasons. (DHS Photo)
The problem was, the girls weren’t girls. They were adult men who used the online disguise as being like-aged females to capture and record what would be distributed as child pornography on a secret computer and Internet network.
The Dallas Morning News reported that two of the victims were from San Angelo. Their names will not be released.
According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 14 men operating the child pornography website on the Darknet’s Onion Router, also known as Tor, were arrested and charged as part of a conspiracy to operate a child exploitation enterprise.
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Above: Sanitized screen grab of the child pornography website on the Darknet’s Onion Router, or Tor, network. The child exploitation enterprise was dismantled by HSI and USPIS. The name of the website is not released for operational reasons. (DHS Photo)
According to DHS, investigators have identified: 251 minor victims in 39 states and five foreign countries: 228 in the United States and 23 in the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Belgium.
Eight of the victims were female and 243 were male.
The majority of victims, 159, were 13 to 15 years old. Fifty nine victims were 16 and 17; 26 victims were 10 to 12; four victims were seven to nine; one victim was four to six; and two victims were three years old or younger. All victims have been contacted by law enforcement, DHS said.
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Above: Sanitized screen grab of the child pornography website on the Darknet’s Onion Router, or Tor, network. The child exploitation enterprise was dismantled by HSI and USPIS. The name of the website is not released for operational reasons. (DHS Photo)
The alleged ring leader and the child porn website’s primary administrator, Jonathan Johnson, 27, of Abita Springs, La., has been charged with operating a child exploitation enterprise, according to DHS. He admitted to creating multiple fake female personas on popular social networks to target and exploit children to pose and film nude, and to coaching other child predators in his inner circle to do the same. Jonathan Johnson has been in federal custody since his arrest June 13, 2013, and faces 20 years to life in prison.
The website was built upon a platform called Tor that was not meant to be breached by authorities. According to the open source software’s website, “Tor is a network of virtual tunnels that allows people and groups to improve their privacy and security on the Internet. It also enables software developers to create new communication tools with built-in privacy features. Tor provides the foundation for a range of applications that allow organizations and individuals to share information over public networks without compromising their privacy.”
Suggested use cases for Tor include keeping websites from having to reveal their location. Individuals use Tor’s hidden services to transmit “socially sensitive” information inside online chat rooms and web forums for rape and abuse survivors, or people with illnesses, Tor’s website said. Tor was developed by the U.S. Navy for secure communications.
In this sting, DHS said that they gathered 2,000 videos stored on the server and that the Tor website had more than 27,000 registered members. The site was active from about June 2012 until June 2013, according to DHS.
DHS called the sting “Operation Round Table” and it was initiated when Johnson was arrested. Also arrested in the Eastern District of Louisiana as the primary operators, contributors and producers of material for the child exploitation enterprise:
- Daniel Nolan Devor, 39, of Brunswick, Ga., charged with conspiracy to produce child pornography, distribution of child pornography and receipt of materials involving the sexual exploitation of minors
- John C. Foster, 44 of Tipp City, Ohio, charged with conspiracy to produce child pornography, distribution of child pornography, and receipt of materials involving the sexual exploitation of minors
- Aung Gaw aka Michael Gaw, 25, of Fremont, Calif., charged with receipt of child pornography
- Vittorio Francesco Gonzalez-Castillo, 26, of Tucson, Ariz., charged with conspiracy to produce child pornography
- Sean Jabbar, 32, of Minneapolis, Minn., charged with receipt of child pornography
- Christopher Jamieson, 30, of Douglassville, Ga., charged with receipt of child pornography
- Andrew Korpal, 29, of Granger, Ind., charged with receipt of child pornography
- Nicholas Saine, 27, of Seattle, Wash., charged with receipt of child pornography
- Christopher Schwab, 25 of New Orleans, charged with production of child pornography, distribution of child pornography, and receipt of child pornography
- Stanley Zdon, III, 27, of Tuckerton, N.J., charged with conspiracy to produce child pornography
According to the DHS, also arrested in the sting from around the country were:
- Roy Naim, 30, of Brooklyn, N.Y., was charged in the Eastern District of New York with conspiracy to produce child pornography, attempted sexual exploitation of a child, receipt of child pornography, and possession of child pornography.
- Minh Vi Thong, 30, of Denver, Colo., was charged in the District of Colorado with production of child pornography, distribution of child pornography, and possession of child pornography.
- Michael Eales, 24, of Westby, Wis., was charged in the Western District of Wisconsin with production of child pornography. He was sentenced Oct. 29, 2013, to serve two concurrent 30-year terms in federal prison, followed by a lifetime of supervised release, for manufacturing child pornography.
The operation was a cooperative effort between the DHS, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) and the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana. DHS said that this was the largest child porn ring bust in its history as an agency.
Portions of this story were taken from a Mar. 18, 2014 press release from the DHS.
More information on the Tor Project.
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