Kansan, hundreds of others arrested around the globe after takedown of largest child porn site
Two users of the Darknet market committed suicide subsequent to the execution of search warrants.
TOPEKA, Kan. (KSNT) – The Department of Justice announced that they have taken down the largest darknet child pornography site in the world, and have arrested a Kansan in the process.
The DOJ said Welcome To Video was the largest exploitation market by content of volume in the world and allowed users to purchase child exploitation videos using Bitcoin.
The site was allegedly run by Jong Woo Son, a 23-year-old South Korean national who is facing charges in the U.S. and South Korea.
Among the 337 arrested were users in the United Kingdom, Germany, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, U. A. E., Czech Republic, Canada, Ireland, Brazil, Australia, and the U. S.
In the U.S., a former ICE agent, a current U.S. Border Patrol agent, and a Kansas resident were arrested.
“Children are our most vulnerable population, and crimes such as these are unthinkable,” said HSI Acting Executive Associate Director Alysa Erichs. “Sadly, advances in technology have enabled child predators to hide behind the dark web and cryptocurrency to further their criminal activity. However, today’s indictment sends a strong message to criminals that no matter how sophisticated the technology or how widespread the network, child exploitation will not be tolerated in the United States. Our entire justice system will stop at nothing to prevent these heinous crimes, safeguard our children, and bring justice to all.”
Two users of the Darknet market committed suicide subsequent to the execution of search warrants.
In 2018, agents from the IRS-CI, HSI, National Crime Agency in the United Kingdom, and Korean National Police in South Korea arrested Son and 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.
The operation resulted in the seizure of approximately eight terabytes of child sexual exploitation videos, which is one of the largest seizures of its kind.
The images, which are currently being analyzed by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, contained over 250,000 unique videos, and 45 percent of the videos currently analyzed contain new images that have not been previously known to exist.
So far this operation has led to the rescue of 23 minor victims in the U.S., Spain and the U. K.