Customs Cracks Parental Pedophile Ring

Zardon · Aug 10, 2002, 11:33 AM

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. and European law-enforcement officials have cracked a ring of pedophile parents who sexually abused their children and traded photographs over the Internet, the U.S. Customs Service said on Friday.
The cross-border sweep resulted in 20 arrests and removed 45 children aged 2 to 14 from abusive parents, Customs officials said. More arrests were likely, they said.
A federal indictment, unsealed on Friday, described a ring of pedophiles who e-mailed each other pornographic photos of their children, traded tips in chat rooms, and sometimes met in person to swap children between 1999 and early 2002.

Members requested photos of specific sexual acts and in one case asked for an audiotape of a child crying while being spanked and abused, the indictment said.
"I've rarely seen crimes as despicable and repugnant," said Customs Commissioner Robert Bonner.
Investigators tracked down suspects through the Internet, much as the suspects themselves used the global computer network to perpetrate their alleged crimes.
Acting on a tip from the Danish chapter of the advocacy group Save the Children, police in November 2001 arrested a Danish man and his wife for posting a pornographic picture of their 9-year-old daughter in an online chat room.

Though the man's face was obscured in the photo, police were able to identify him by a corporate logo on his shirt, said a Save the Children Denmark expert.
"They're some of the worst pictures I've ever seen," said Vernon Jones, a program manager at Save the Children Denmark who described the photos as "torture."
Danish police examined the couple's computer and found records of communications with suspects in the United States and Europe, Customs agent Mike Netherland said.
Customs was able to make its first arrests by late January.

A federal court in California indicted the Danish couple and 13 others Thursday on charges of conspiracy to sexually exploit children, sexual exploitation of children, and distributing child pornography. If convicted, they face a minimum of 10 years in prison.
All but two of those charged were already in custody, Netherland said, and the remaining two were expected to surrender to police.
The abused children have been placed in foster homes or returned to spouses who were not involved, Bonner said. Thirty-seven of the 45 children lived in the United States, he said.
Bonner said the United States would seek to extradite the Danish couple, as well as residents of Switzerland and the Netherlands named in the indictment.

Others named in the indictment live in California, Florida, Texas, Idaho, New York, South Carolina, Washington and Kansas.

Two other U.S. citizens involved in the ring were not indicted because one had committed suicide, while another pleaded guilty and was serving a 20-year term, Bonner said.
Customs and Save the Children's Jones said the Internet has increased the market for child pornography, because people with antisocial interests are able to form online communities.
Save the Children Denmark receives roughly 500 tips per month, a high number for a country of only 5 million people, Jones said.
And while the perpetrators may be behind bars, the children continue to suffer as their pictures are passed around, he said.
"Once it's out there on the Internet, these pictures don't go away," Jones said.

uf4 · Aug 10, 2002, 11:48 AM

they all go to Hell soon

skastel · Aug 10, 2002, 12:16 PM

10 years max for these people?
that's a crime, there's no reason to let these people bakc into society until they've been punished and reformed. How can we lonly put them away for 10 years, 20 should be the maximum and 10 the minimum. These children are scarred for the rest of their lives!! The parents will have to live with themselves after doing such horrible things, but judging from the evidence against them, they don't seem too remorseful.

digitalwanderer · Aug 10, 2002, 12:51 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by skastel
10 years max for these people?
that's a crime, there's no reason to let these people bakc into society until they've been punished and reformed. How can we lonly put them away for 10 years, 20 should be the maximum and 10 the minimum. These children are scarred for the rest of their lives!! The parents will have to live with themselves after doing such horrible things, but judging from the evidence against them, they don't seem too remorseful.

I agree that 10 years ain't nearly enough, but my consolation is knowing how other prisoners tend to treat child molesters in prison. (HINT: The majority of the people serving time in my country are parents themselves and consider child molesters the lowest form of scum on the earth too. )

I hope they get some of the hell they have coming to them, I hope the children will some day recover and deal with their ordeals.

kinetic · Aug 10, 2002, 03:00 PM

These people are the scum of the earth and, unfortunately, the internet is a powerful tool which they use to full effect. They should either be locked up for the rest of their lives or executed, as this 'illness' has no known cure.

~~Sourcer_2002~~ · Aug 10, 2002, 03:32 PM

man what a bunch of seek bastards its shame the the net gets abused so much and gets a bad rap from sick people like that. And think about the kids man havenin pics takin like that, just messed up. They'll get whats comeing to them in jail

Nexus · Aug 11, 2002, 08:13 PM

There ought to be stiffer punishments and longer times on things like this and on hate crimes. those ppl oughta suffer

Murdock · Aug 12, 2002, 05:52 AM

Let them fucked by an Elephant, then those people feel what ,theire victims felt.

~~Sourcer_2002~~ · Aug 12, 2002, 05:58 AM

oh they will get there payback in jail.

~~Sourcer_2002~~ · Aug 12, 2002, 05:59 AM

thry'll get 10 years of ass pounding from the biggest dude in the jail LoL

They diffently come out reformed.

uf4 · Aug 12, 2002, 08:47 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Sourcer_2002
thry'll get 10 years of ass pounding from the biggest dude in the jail LoL They diffently come out reformed.

nah not even that may be they like it that way. one way or the other, these ppl will go to Hell.

Malus · Aug 12, 2002, 05:34 PM

They'll probably get a few months in jail, then they'll be on parole because of good behaviour.

Aug 10, 2002, 11:33 AM	#1
Zardon DriverHeaven Founder Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 32,480 Rep Power: 177	Customs Cracks Parental Pedophile Ring WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. and European law-enforcement officials have cracked a ring of pedophile parents who sexually abused their children and traded photographs over the Internet, the U.S. Customs Service said on Friday. The cross-border sweep resulted in 20 arrests and removed 45 children aged 2 to 14 from abusive parents, Customs officials said. More arrests were likely, they said. A federal indictment, unsealed on Friday, described a ring of pedophiles who e-mailed each other pornographic photos of their children, traded tips in chat rooms, and sometimes met in person to swap children between 1999 and early 2002. Members requested photos of specific sexual acts and in one case asked for an audiotape of a child crying while being spanked and abused, the indictment said. "I've rarely seen crimes as despicable and repugnant," said Customs Commissioner Robert Bonner. Investigators tracked down suspects through the Internet, much as the suspects themselves used the global computer network to perpetrate their alleged crimes. Acting on a tip from the Danish chapter of the advocacy group Save the Children, police in November 2001 arrested a Danish man and his wife for posting a pornographic picture of their 9-year-old daughter in an online chat room. Though the man's face was obscured in the photo, police were able to identify him by a corporate logo on his shirt, said a Save the Children Denmark expert. "They're some of the worst pictures I've ever seen," said Vernon Jones, a program manager at Save the Children Denmark who described the photos as "torture." Danish police examined the couple's computer and found records of communications with suspects in the United States and Europe, Customs agent Mike Netherland said. Customs was able to make its first arrests by late January. A federal court in California indicted the Danish couple and 13 others Thursday on charges of conspiracy to sexually exploit children, sexual exploitation of children, and distributing child pornography. If convicted, they face a minimum of 10 years in prison. All but two of those charged were already in custody, Netherland said, and the remaining two were expected to surrender to police. The abused children have been placed in foster homes or returned to spouses who were not involved, Bonner said. Thirty-seven of the 45 children lived in the United States, he said. Bonner said the United States would seek to extradite the Danish couple, as well as residents of Switzerland and the Netherlands named in the indictment. Others named in the indictment live in California, Florida, Texas, Idaho, New York, South Carolina, Washington and Kansas. Two other U.S. citizens involved in the ring were not indicted because one had committed suicide, while another pleaded guilty and was serving a 20-year term, Bonner said. Customs and Save the Children's Jones said the Internet has increased the market for child pornography, because people with antisocial interests are able to form online communities. Save the Children Denmark receives roughly 500 tips per month, a high number for a country of only 5 million people, Jones said. And while the perpetrators may be behind bars, the children continue to suffer as their pictures are passed around, he said. "Once it's out there on the Internet, these pictures don't go away," Jones said.

Aug 10, 2002, 11:48 AM	#2
uf4 Always newbie & cocky kid Join Date: Jul 2002 Posts: 439 Rep Power: 0	// they all go to Hell soon

Aug 10, 2002, 12:16 PM	#3
skastel Massive Happiness Join Date: May 2002 Location: Boston, MA Posts: 238 Rep Power: 0	10 years? 10 years max for these people? that's a crime, there's no reason to let these people bakc into society until they've been punished and reformed. How can we lonly put them away for 10 years, 20 should be the maximum and 10 the minimum. These children are scarred for the rest of their lives!! The parents will have to live with themselves after doing such horrible things, but judging from the evidence against them, they don't seem too remorseful. __________________ Barton 2800+ @ 1998Mhz (12x166) Radeon 9700 Pro ASUS A7N 1 GB Corsair Low Latency PC3200 (2-2-2-5) SBLive! 5.1 WD 80GB JB Samsung DVD 16x+/12x-/2.4x Dual Layer Lite-On CD-R/RW 48x12x48x

Aug 12, 2002, 05:34 PM	#12
Malus BSD SMASH! Join Date: May 2002 Location: A rabbit hole. . . Posts: 1,170 Rep Power: 0	They'll probably get a few months in jail, then they'll be on parole because of good behaviour. __________________ quad (FreeBSD/amd64 8-CURRENT): Intel Q6600 - Asus P5E-VM HDMI - 2x2 GB Kingston PC6400 DDR2 Ram - Seagate 320GB 7200RPM HD - 2xSeagate 1TB 7200RPM HD in RAID 1 via ZFS - Lite-On 20x DVD Multi Recorder - Coolermaster Centurion 5 router (FreeBSD/amd64 8-CURRENT): Intel E4500 - Intel D945GCNL - 2 GB PC6400 Mushkin Ram - Lite-On 48x24x48x16 - Seagate 320GB 7200RPM HD - Silverstone SST-SG02-F wanderer (FreeBSD/i386 7-CURRENT): Lenovo Thinkpad T61p mini (OS X 10.5): Intel Core 2 Duo @ 1.8Ghz, 4 GB Mushkin PC5400 Ram - Headroom MicroDAC Portable sound: Rockboxed iPod Video -> Westone UM2's Not-So-Portable Sound: Headroon MicroDAC -> Singlepower PPX3-SLAM -> Grado RS-1's or Beyerdynamic DT-880's Very-Not-Portable-Sound: Squeezebox v3 -> Denon AVR-1507 -> B&W 683's & Sunfire HRS-10

Aug 10, 2002, 03:00 PM	#5
kinetic DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: Manchester England Posts: 2,559 Rep Power: 0	These people are the scum of the earth and, unfortunately, the internet is a powerful tool which they use to full effect. They should either be locked up for the rest of their lives or executed, as this 'illness' has no known cure.

Aug 10, 2002, 03:32 PM	#6
~~Sourcer_2002~~ BANNED Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Indiana , USA Posts: 2,677 Rep Power: 0	man what a bunch of seek bastards its shame the the net gets abused so much and gets a bad rap from sick people like that. And think about the kids man havenin pics takin like that, just messed up. They'll get whats comeing to them in jail

Aug 11, 2002, 08:13 PM	#7
Nexus -=Space Cowboy=- Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: NCV-474439-G Posts: 108 Rep Power: 0	There ought to be stiffer punishments and longer times on things like this and on hate crimes. those ppl oughta suffer

Aug 12, 2002, 05:52 AM	#8
Murdock DriverHeaven Addict Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: UK Posts: 325 Rep Power: 0	Let them fucked by an Elephant, then those people feel what ,theire victims felt.

Aug 12, 2002, 05:58 AM	#9
~~Sourcer_2002~~ BANNED Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Indiana , USA Posts: 2,677 Rep Power: 0	oh they will get there payback in jail.

Aug 12, 2002, 05:59 AM	#10
~~Sourcer_2002~~ BANNED Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Indiana , USA Posts: 2,677 Rep Power: 0	thry'll get 10 years of ass pounding from the biggest dude in the jail LoL They diffently come out reformed.