There are some things more important than business! And in this case we are posting an article to help inform and educate our readers about Child Porn on the INTERNET!

ATTENTION… For all of you reading this post, and thinking “This can never happen to me!” I want you to know that Santa Rosa Beach is a small quaint beach town sitting on a barrier island on the Emerald Coast of Florida. The crime rate is next to zero. However in the last four years this is the second international crime ring busted in this small town. The first was an Identity Theft ring based out of Europe who were using summer workers in the tourist trade to steal peoples identities who were there on vacation, and now the World’s Largest Child Porn Ring. It can happen right in your back yard!

The U. S. Attorney's Office has charged James Freeman, 47, with numerous federal crimes: engaging in a child exploitation enterprise, conspiracy, advertisement of child pornography, transportation of child pornography, receipt of child pornography and obstruction of justice.

Freeman's user name was "Mystikal," according to his indictment.

In all, more than 400,000 pictures, video files and other images showing children engaged in sexual behavior were produced, advertised, traded and distributed globally in the online pornography ring, according to U.S. and international authorities. The sting, which started in Australia, also netted accused pornographers in England, Canada and Germany.

Some victims were as young as five years old. Others were preyed upon for innocent characteristics such as wearing their hair in pigtails.The charges were filed after investigators infiltrated the network. By then, the group had already traded more than 400,000 images and videos of child sex abuse, the U.S. Attorney's Office alleges.

Authorities won’t say how they eventually broke through several layers of encryption, background checks and other security measures the pornographers used to protect their online user group from being accessed. The porn ring was run like a business, FBI executive assistant director J. Stephen Tidwell said Tuesday, with the lewd images used as currency instead of cash.

“This is beyond a quantum exponential leap for us to see folks that have gone to this much trouble to produce this kind of volume of horrific exploitation of children,” Tidwell said in an interview.

So far, authorities have identified and rescued 20 of the children who were exploited, he said, adding: “But with 400,000 (images) we’re going to be at this for years, trying to find the victims.”

FBI executive assistant director J. Stephen Tidwell and Australian investigators first discovered the ring and infiltrated it undercover in January 2006, said Ross Barnett, detective chief superintendent with the Queensland Police Service. Those who gained access to the online forum could only after passing a series of what Tidwell called “various benchmarks and bars to get over to get into their group.”

“From our perspective, it’s definitely the largest and most sophisticated and disciplined group that we have ever seen operating in this environment,” Barnett said.

The men were indicted from towns in 10 states: California, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia.

The men are referred to in the indictment by various nicknames, which include “Box of Rocks,” “Crazy Horse,” “Eggplant,” “RoadKill” and “Pickleman,” reports CBS News correspondent Bob Orr. The indictment was unsealed Friday as the FBI started making arrests.

In one example cited in the indictment, Raymond Roy – known as “Nimo” – posted videos of Thai children “to give everyone something to do for an afternoon.”

“This one may offend here, so a word of caution, these girls are heavily drugged,” Roy wrote on July 10, 2007, according to the court documents. “Not much action to speak of, the girls are (sic) to (expletive deleted) up to move, or resist. Three girls, the first one being the youngest, around 8 or 9 yo.”

“Yo” stands for “years old.”

The 12 men who were charged with engaging in a child exploitation enterprise; illegally posting notices seeking to receive, exchange and distribute child porn across state lines; and obstructing of justice. Several also were charged with producing the pornography – meaning they had contact with the children who were exploited, Tidwell said.

The investigation, which is continuing, is the latest product of the FBI’s “Innocent Images” task force that stemmed from a 1993 child pornography case. The task force has arrested more than 9,400 suspects since 2004 and is made up of international investigators working in the United States from an FBI command center in suburban Maryland.

Noting the sophisticated process the porn ring used to bar police, Tidwell compared the growing number of child pornography crimes to that of cocaine dealers, terrorists and the Mafia.

“If they had good operational security, that’s a bad thing for us,” Tidwell said. “When you’ve got that, you’ve got a real challenge for law enforcement.”

INDICTED BY THE GRAND JURY:

Michael Berger, 33, username “Box of Rocks” of Mechanicsville, Va.
James Freeman, 47, “Mystikal” of Santa Rosa Beach
Ruble Keys, 55, “Crazy Horse” of Medford, Ore.
Gary Lakey, 54, “Eggplant” of Anderson, Ind.
Marvin Lambert, 33, “Methuselah” of Indianapolis, Ind.
Neville McGarity, 40, “Wraith” of Medina, Texas
John Mosman, 46, “Pickleman” of Waterbury, Conn.
Warren Mumpower, 63, “Lizzard” of Spokane, Wash.
Raymond Roy, 54, “Nimo” of San Juan Capistrano, Calif.
Erik Wayerski, 46, “Lerch” of Round Rock, Texas
Warren Weber, 56, “Muad’Dib” of Boise, Idaho
Ronald White, 59, “RoadKill” of Burlington, N.C.

ARRESTED FEB. 29:

Stepan Bondarenko, 38, of Philadelphia, Pa.
Daniel Castleman, 43, of Lubbock, Texas

Where are your kids and who are they talking to on the INTERNET?

Never Give Up,

Troy Dooly

The Caretaker