Law Enforcement Operations that Catch
Child Sex Abusers On-Line
 August 2001:- Operation Avalanche

Landslide Productions was incorporated in Dallas by its directors Thomas and Janice Reedy in 1997. Initially, the company offered explicit material involving mostly adults but as the business grew, the Reedys derived more and more of their income from providing access to Web sites featuring child pornography. Landslide had a fee-sharing arrangement with foreign Web masters who maintained the child pornography, the Reedys grossed about $US5.7 million from subscribers and paid about 60 percent to foreign Web masters in countries including Russia and Indonesia. The company was very profitable, taking in as much as $US1.4 million in one especially lucrative month. It is the largest known commercial child pornography enterprise uncovered. Its Web site counted at least 250,000 subscribers, many of them living overseas. US investigators and international law enforcement bodies began investigating Landslide in 1999 after receiving more than 250 complaints from computer users around the world. Thomas and Janice Reedy were arrested in September 1999 and law enforcement seized control of the company and turned their attention to consumers. Pretending the company was still active, investigators sent electronic messages to subscribers to determine who would buy the illegal materials. In August 2001, US and other US law enforcement bodies set up a sting operation that would catch subscribers “picking up” their illegal material. In the US alone over a 100 people were arrested.


November 2001:-Operation Landmark

“Operation Landmark” focused on child sex abuses who downloaded
and distributed child pornography from the Internet. Police in
19 Countries executed 130 searches and arrest warrants,
acting on information supplied by Interpol.
Police monitored traffic, an Internet service provider “Demon Internet”, who agreed to co-operate with them and allow access to its servers. One of the identified news groups was used by abusers to seek advice on how to “groom” young children for abuse. The investigators discovered that a little over 11,000 Internet users were downloading and distributing child pornography through 30 sites. However, they narrowed their investigation to the 400 distributors of the child pornography. Sadly, the investigators reported that these on-line sex abusers have learnt lessons from the Wonderland and Avalanche Operations and have been developing new and innovative ways to hide their true identities.

 


 
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