Officials call it largest local roundups ever
By Tom Hays
Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — A police officer, a paramedic, a rabbi, a nurse and a Boy Scout leader were among at least 70 people arrested in the New York City area in recent weeks as part of a sweeping investigation into the anonymous trading of child porn over the Internet.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which led a five-week investigation ending last week, announced Wednesday that it resulted in charges against at least 70 men and one woman. Officials call it one of the largest local roundups ever of individual consumers of child porn.
Advances in technology and computer capacity have allowed child-porn collectors to more easily amass vast troves of images and to exchange files with each other directly, authorities say. The cyber dragnet resulted in the seizure of nearly 600 desktop and laptop computers, tablets, smartphones and other devices containing 175 terabytes of storage.
Agents are still examining the devices to locate and catalog evidence — an arduous task that could result in more arrests. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children also will use its analysts to review the images to see if it can identify children using databases of known victims.
