On Wednesday, American, British & South Korean officials stated at a news briefing here that they have busted one of the worlds largest child sexual exploitation networks.
The website had more than one million bitcoin addresses, signifying that the website had a capacity for at least one million users, revealed by an analysis of a server, seized by South Korean authorities, Dawn newspaper reported.
At least 23 minor victims residing in Spain, the United States & the United Kingdom, who were being actively abused by the users of the site, had been rescued in the operation, the report said.
According to US Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard Downing, the internet-based child pornographic network was the world’s biggest child sexual exploitation market by volume of content.
Officials stated that hundreds of suspects had been charged worldwide for their alleged involvement with the largest darknet child pornography website, financed by Bitcoin.
In Washington, a federal grand jury indicted a South Korean national Jong Woo Son, 23 for operating the website called Welcome to Video.
On Wednesday, the nine-count indictment was unsealed along with a parallel civil forfeiture action. Jong Woo Son has also been charged & convicted in South Korea & is currently in custody, serving his sentence in South Korea.
Authorities have also arrested 337 other users in the US states of Alabama, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington State & Washington, DC.
Some of the suspects were arrested in the UK, South Korea, Germany, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the Czech Republic, Canada, Ireland, Spain, Brazil & Australia, the Dawn report said.
According to US Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski, “Darknet sites that profit from the sexual exploitation of children are among the most vile & reprehensible forms of criminal behaviour,” Benczkowski said. “This administration will not allow child predators to use lawless online spaces as a shield.”
He added that the US Department of Justice was working closely with partners in South Korea & around the world to rescue child victims & bring to justice the perpetrators of the abhorrent crimes.
Chief of the US Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Enforcement Don Fort told the news briefing that in busting the network their agents played a key role.
Fort said, “Through the sophisticated tracing of bitcoin transactions, IRS-CE special agents were able to determine the location of the Darknet server, identify the administrator of the website & ultimately track down the website server’s physical location in South Korea".
He further added, “This large-scale criminal enterprise that endangered the safety of children around the world is no more".
According to the indictment, agents from the IRS, HSI, National Crime Agency in the United Kingdom, & Korean National Police in South Korea arrested Son & seized the server that he used to operate a darknet market that exclusively advertised child sexual exploitation videos available for download by members of the site.
About eight terabytes of child sexual exploitation videos had been seized in the operation, which is one of the largest seizures of its kind.
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