The DOJ announced today in a press conference that "Welcome to Video," hosted 8 terrabytes of child porn, resulting in arrests of 337 around the world, and 23 children across the world were identified via Welcome to Video materials and were rescued from abusive situations. Welcome to Video is one of the world's largest dark web child porn websites. In the US, the people arrested resided in the states of AL, AK, CA, CT, FL, GA, KN, LA, MD, MA, NE, NY, NC, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, TX, UT, SC, VA, WA, and DC.
In the Washington DC area, the operation has led to the execution of 5 search warrants and 8 arrests. Two users of the Darknet market committed suicide subsequent to the execution of search warrants.
This link from WFMZ , Allentown, PA, provided a video of the DOJ announcing the takedown, but it's only 45 seconds long, and it was cut off. Was it cut off purposely? By CNN? I searched for a full video and came up with nothing.
https://www.wfmz.com/news/cnn/us-national/doj-announces-takedown-of-darknet-child-porn-site/video_2861c307-93e3-5b67-b613-dbd726fe88d3.html
A 23-year old South Korean male, Jong Woo Son, was indicted for running Welcome to Video. In a nine-count indictment, prosecutors said that Son was arrested in March of 2018 when the server used to operate the site was seized. Son has been convicted in South Korea and is currently serving his sentence there.
The DOJ said it traced Bitcoin payments in order to find users and administrators of the website. In a shockingly terrible opsec, the website's administrator was running payments through an American Bitcoin exchange under his real name, cell phone number, and email account. The site hosted more than 200,000 videos, and users had downloaded more than a million files. Jessie Liu, a federal prosecutor for DC stated that "much of the site depicted prepubescent children, tiddlers, and infants engaged in sexual conductt. According to the indictment, the site operated between June 2015 and late 2018 when it was seized. Members paid roughly $350 in Bitcoin for a 6-month membership that allowed for unlimited downloads.
The investigation was a partnership between the DOJ, ICE, the IRS and their counterparts in the UK and South Korea. Liu said that 53 alleged pedophiles have been arrested in the US and that dozens more are under investigation. She said people have been arrested in Brazil, the Czech Republic, South Korea, Ireland, the United Arab Emirates, and other countries.
The US Attorney's Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment
This is a very important bust, but why did the DOJ allow the site to operate so long? Identifying the administrator and some of its users was done quickly, however, there are ongoing debates in the law enforcement community about whether it should allow child porn websites to operate in order to gather more evidence. The DOJ noted same in their press conference.
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/south-korean-national-and-hundreds-others-charged-worldwide-takedown-largest-darknet-child
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/gyzkxb/feds-bust-one-of-the-dark-webs-biggest-child-porn-sites-thanks-to-tremendously-bad-opsec
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think- ago
This was initiated by the UK, not by the DOJ. The Brits sent their info to the DOJ. They had found the website when they investigated a British pedo. @EricKaliberhall
One million addresses were registered at the site, but only 337 perps got arrested, one only got a 'caution' in the UK.
Only 23 kids were saved, although there must have been thousands of victims. The youngest child that was raped was a newborn baby.
The owner of the website got only 18 months (!) in prison in South Korea - wtf.
No. They did not 'engage in sexual conduct'. They were raped and tortured.
carmencita ago
Thanks for catching that! Dear God.