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CNN Live Saturday

Authorities Uncover Child Pornography Enterprise; Arrest 100 People

Aired August 11, 2001 - 15:20   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: One hundred people have been arrested in what's being called the largest child pornography enterprise ever uncovered in the United States. CNN's justice correspondent Kelli Arena explains how these lawbreakers were caught.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It often starts with a tip about a Web site containing child pornography.

ALEXIS SLEBODNICK, U.S. CUSTOMS ANALYST: Once I verify the tip, I would go into the actual site, I would download the images onto a disk and maintain that as evidence.

ARENA: U.S. Customs estimates there are about 100,000 child porn Web sites. Cases are often complicated because most Web sites originate in other countries -- Russia, for example.

PHIL OSBORN, U.S. CUSTOMS PROGRAM DIRECTOR: I might look through this and decide -- see who is offering most -- the most pictures or maybe the ones that are the most obvious child pornography, and maybe actually just sort of doing triage on the individuals that are in the United States.

ARENA: Customs, FBI and postal investigators use both new online techniques and old-fashioned sting operations.

RAYMOND SMITH, U.S. POSTAL INVESTIGATOR: We initiate contact with suspects in an undercover capacity. We place undercover advertisements, if you will, out there and allow the suspects to come to us.

ARENA: The goal is to not only track down site operators, but users as well.

KEVIN DELLI-COLLI, U.S. CUSTOMS DIRECTOR: Now, in a pay situation, there's all the more risk to the consumer in that sense, because there has to be a transaction, it's not just a matter of anonymously going to the site and downloading child pornography.

ARENA: When there are no credit card records or client lists, investigators armed with search warrants use Internet tracing to try to identify who has visited the site. Sometimes, the art of persuasion is the best weapon.

LT. BILL WALSH, DALLAS POLICE DEPARTMENT: If you know that it's some man in Kansas who is molesting his daughter and took a picture and sent it to you, if you help us identify that child, to get her help, then we would be more open to a plea bargain arrangement.

ARENA (on camera): Since 1997, postal investigators have arrested more than 1,000 people in the U.S. for distributing or possessing child pornography. In those cases, more than 400 children were victimized.

Kelli Arena, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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