U.S.

Child Cyberporn Patrons Busted

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

August 8, 2001 / 9:49 AM EDT / CBS

When the feds busted Thomas Reedy and his wife, Janice, they shut down the largest child pornography business in U.S. history. From those arrests, agents also got something else - a customer list.

Today, federal authorities revealed they've arrested 100 people for possessing child pornography.

"The consumer or user of child pornography is no less responsible for sexual exploitation than is the producer or distributor," said Kenneth Weaver, chief postal inspector.

The Reedys' Landslide Productions brought in millions selling child pornography. For $30 per month subscribers could access Web sites such as "Lolita World.'

"We're talking about children being raped, crying, it was disturbing, it was so disturbing," Terri Moore, assistant U.S. attorney, told CBS News Correspondent Bob Orr.

Dallas police, working with federal agents, identified the Reedys' best customers and set up a sting called "Operation Avalanche." Agents posed as Internet vendors offering child pornography to those customers who wanted it. The sting has so far led to 144 searches in 37 states. Among the 100 people arrested: a man who worked at a West Virginia hospital for sexually abused children and a former Tennessee fire chief.

Just this week, Thomas Reedy, 37, was sentenced to more than 1,300 years in prison. His wife, 32, who claimed she'd been a dependant, and not a player in the kiddie porn ring, was sentenced to 14 years in prison.

Attorney General John Ashcroft said the arrests proved "there are no free rides on the information superhighway for traffickers and child pornographers."

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"During an Operation Avalanche search, we found a collection of videotapes produced by a suspect depicting the sexual abuse of several young girls. One of the girls was only 4 years old," Weaver said.

Landslide provided a credit card verification service that admitted customers into Web sites containing graphic pictures and videos of children engaging in sex acts with adults and with each other, the government charged.

Landslide netted more than $1 million between 1997 and 1999, the government said.

The Web site had about 250,000 subscribers. Holmes said authorities tracked down sme of them using electronic and credit card information gathered in an investigation conducted by the postal inspection service, U.S. Customs Service, the FBI and the Dallas Police Department. It is illegal to possess child pornography.

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The porn sites were run by operators in Russia and Indonesia. Warrants have been issued for their arrest.

Authorities said the Reedys kept 40 percent of the profits and gave the operators 60 percent.

Ashcroft said the arrests do not mean the Web should be off-limits to kids.

"Today's announcement may alarm some parents," Ashcroft said. "The Justice Department is not saying you should deprive your children of the educational and recreational opportunities of the Internet."