Another hidden service gets pwned by the feds

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/18/us-usa-crime-childporn-idUSBREA2H1HS20140318

U.S. authorities arrest 14 in child porn website involving 251 children

WASHINGTON Tue Mar 18, 2014 12:15pm EDT

(Reuters) - Authorities have arrested 14 men in a secret, members-only child pornography website that involved 251 children, mostly boys, in five countries, U.S. officials said on Tuesday.

Some of the men assumed female online personas to contact the children, who ranged in age from three to 17 years, on popular social networks, officials from the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement said.

Eleven of the men charged with running the website, which had more than 27,000 subscribers, were from Louisiana, the officials said at a news conference. All were in custody.

The 251 victims, who have been identified and contacted by authorities, were located in 39 U.S. states. The majority were between 13 and 15 and all, but a handful, were boys.

Authorities said 23 victims were identified in the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Belgium.

"Never before in the history of this agency have we identified and located this many minor victims in the course of a single child-exploitation investigation," said Daniel Ragsdale, the ICE deputy director.

The network was identified after an item was sent through the U.S. Postal Service to a child, said James Kilpatrick, a program manager for the ICE Cyber Crime Center.

The underground website was a hidden service board on the Tor network of Darknet, investigators said, referring to a hidden online network sometimes used for illicit activities.

There are more than 300 investigations open in the United States and abroad into some of the website's subscribers, investigators said.

DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson emphasized the importance of educating youths about the dangers of Internet use.

"The fact is that many other children are still in danger," Johnson told reporters.

The men were charged with conspiracy to operate a child exploitation enterprise.

The website's main administrator, Jonathan Johnson, 27, of Abita Springs, Louisiana, faces 20 years to life in prison, said Kenneth Allen Polite, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Video press release on it: http://static.dvidshub.net/media/video/1403/DOD_101179250/DOD_101179250-486x274-300k.mp4

Plea agreements: http://www.justice.gov/usao/lae/news/2014/downloads/2014_03_12_Stanley_Zdon_plea.pdf

http://www.justice.gov/usao/lae/news/2014/downloads/2014_02_27_Daniel_Devor_plea.pdf


Comments


[30 Points] elburritoh:

Way to go LEO! FUCK CP, I hope they get life Pelican Bay. They will have a grand time.

Edit: I suppose it would be NOLA in their case. WARNING: CLEARNET

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/05/10-worst-prisons-america-orleans-parish-opp


[7 Points] None:

[deleted]


[6 Points] None:

[deleted]


[3 Points] NiggaKingKilla:

This is what the FBI should be spending their money on. Not people trying to avoid supporting violent drug cartels.


[3 Points] blackhand25:

I'm glad they caught these men and identified their victims.

However, there are a few things I find troubling. We seem to be a good distance from the days of Operation Achilles when there were 61 known members with less than a third ever identified or caught, and as far as I know only a handful of victims were identified. With that operation, the leader of the group on more than one occasion surfaced on Usenet just to let everyone know he was free and to answer questions about the operation. Now we've got 11 people in charge being arrested? One of two possibilities has happened, 1: the people who ran whatever site they were running were all idiots and terrible at what they do, or 2: the FBI/NSA has a whole lot more power and tools at their disposal to break our anonymity than they did in 2008. As a resident of the darknet, let's hope that it's the first one.

That said, to hell with people who hurt kids.


[3 Points] None:

I found a picture of one of them: http://cdn1.geeknation.com/geek/wp-content/uploads/Screen-Shot-2014-03-09-at-10.37.10-PM.png


[2 Points] None:

Great more trash making tor and the darknet look like a paradise for scum. Everyone I know IRL cites this as a source for why the darknet should not be allowed to exist. Instead of showing how anonymity can lead to reduced drug-related crime, this makes headlines with most of them reading TOR=Child Porn. Most news I see basically read like this, "Silk Road, etc etc. Drugs and CP exist on the same site, TOR". I wish I could personally mutilate these fucks, however when things like this happen most people generally equate TOR/the darknet with CP and don't realize that both are two separate entities entirely. TLDR Detergents degrade the public's look on Tor and the darknet

End drunk post


[1 Points] pinkprincess1:

On the surface its the best news I've heard all day although agree the anonymity aspect is disturbing. But Fuck them.


[1 Points] baseballdude81:

How were they able to identify the victims from a video? Sounds like bullshit to me.


[1 Points] b3nadrill:

251 children...

right on piggers going after the people that are hurting others

no go burn in hell you power abusing swine


[1 Points] elburritoh:

Busted through CLEARNET!

/r/onions/comments/20qzi6/pedophile_ring_that_operated_through_tor_nabbed/


[1 Points] None:

Great job DHS.


[0 Points] Red_Skare:

Good, these fucks should all go to jail. I agree with the guy who said we shouldn't kill them because that does make it better for the pedo to kill their victim to minimize risk. And despite what you hear on TV, no...Pedos do not get tortured and killed in jail. If they did you would never hear about repeat offenders. I am not defending these pieces of shit but most of what people think about pedos is based off of shit they hear on TV and in movies. No, they are not more likely to repeat an offense when they get out of prison and the sex offender registry does absolutely nothing to help anyone. I urge everyone who thinks they know anything about this subject to actually research it.


[0 Points] SilkRoadOrShitCreek:

I see a lot of paranoid people in this thread... The article doesn't even mention Tor. You guys know not all CP gets traded on the darknet right?


[-2 Points] fplusbacterium:

Murderers, rapists, pedophiles - euthanasia we can all agree on.


[-8 Points] None:

I always find it highly hypocritical how people using drugs and such are so anti-CP. I mean it's a pretty repugnant thing to do, don't get me wrong, but it's just sort of a high horse thing. We all know that CP is wrong, don't need to toot for karma.

I would prefer if we learned from their mistakes. How exactly did they get busted? I mean someone mailed a single item and that led to every person in the group being taken down? That would be like if a single vendor's package was intercepted and then every single buyer and seller being taken down as a result. I feel like we aren't getting a full picture here.