The Associated Press reported that several respected members of the community were caught using the Web to collect and trade pornographic photos of children. According to federal officials on Wednesday, among those of the 70 men and one woman in the New York City area were a police officer, a paramedic, a rabbi, an airline pilot, an architect, a Boy Scout leader.
The arrests and charges were part of the five-week investigation conducted by the Homeland Security Investigations arm of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. According to the officials, some of the defendants have used Internet search terms "real child rape" and "family sex," which turned up thousands of disturbing images on their computers insider suburban homes they share with other family members. The lone woman was charged of allowing another man, who is also a suspect in the probe, to videotape her son.
The arrests were deemed to be among the largest local roundups of people who are looking to share porn online anonymously. AP said it was also a grim reminder that people who do so could come from all walks of life.
ICE New York office head James Hayes said, "This operation puts the lie to the classic, stereotypical profile that child predators are nothing more than unemployed drifters. (The operation was meant to send a message to producers and consumers of child porn) that they are going to be identified, that they are going to be found. Those people need to look themselves in the mirror and do whatever they need to do to stop this activity."
Federal authorities have said that the arrests were made thanks to advances in technology and computer capacity. Around 600 desktop and laptop computers, smartphones, laptops and other storage devices were seized in the roundups.
AP said that the arrests were spurred by a controversial arrest of a Mount Pleasant, New York police chief in January this year. According to court papers, Brian Fanelli had grown personally interested with child pornography after looking at some pictures for research purposes. This week, the police chief had pleaded not guilty to federal charges of knowingly receiving and distributing child pornography.
