Lastest FBI child porn bust ; why no coordinated raids?

The FBI seized a child porn website ( "website A" ) on February 20th 2015 and allowed it to run until March 4th, distributing malware to anyone logging in. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/07/feds-bust-through-huge-tor-hidden-child-porn-site-using-questionable-malware/

In previous dark market/child porn busts, including the very similar "operation torpedo", the FBI first gathered identities and then conducted simultaneous raids, I assume to prevent criminals from destroying evidences. However in this case, there are a few known arrests ( at least 6 ) from mid-June to the beginning of this month. Most are only charged with possession, not even distribution. I'm not very aware of how the FBI works, but I can only think of two explanations, either they caught so many they have not hope of prosecuting everyone ( but then why not charging producers/distributors first? ), or they consider them too small fishes to deserve coordinated raids. Thoughts?


Comments


[19 Points] LedLevee:

Very interesting part that no one has seemed to read yet:

Legal experts told Ars that there are significant questions about precisely how the unnamed Tor site was breached, exactly how its "Network Investigative Tool" (or NIT, i.e., malware) works, how many of the users were outside of the judicial district, and if the seized server contained other non-criminal content. "This is another example of the FBI obtaining a warrant that they are not yet authorized to obtain or execute based on the lack of technical expertise of the judiciary," Ahmed Ghappour, a law professor at the University of California, Hastings, told Ars. Ghappour pointed to a proposed change to Rule 41 that is currently working its way through the judicial system.

Ballsy law professor who sticks to his principles and the law even when kiddy fiddlers are being taken down. I commend it, but you know the public/media will vilify/attack him for it.


[5 Points] throwahooawayyfoe:

Most are only charged with possession, not even distribution.

that makes sense. if you never uploaded anything, you never distributed it. there was probably only a small group of people that was actually doing the sharing and distribution and the rest were likely just normal users that got caught up in the operation. feds don't normally go after small fries. too much hassle for too few headlines. they wan't the big fish and the ring leaders that will land them on section a, page 1 in as many news outlets as they can.


[2 Points] Underthearchway:

Passed on to local LE. Make raids when arrest figures need a boast.


[1 Points] xwintermutex:

This surprises me as well. It gives suspects the time to get rid of evidence. It makes no sense to me.

Also, it scares me that no details of this "Network Investigative Tool" have surfaced. Did no-one of the said 215k users save that page to disk? Or noticed anything?