337 arresteret i 38 lande efter Bitcoin sporing tog ned velkommen til video børnemishandling markedsplads

Efter at det britiske politi var færdig med Richard Huckle, trak de hele tiden på den samme mørke-web tråd. The National Crime Agency fortalte verden, at det havde hjulpet arrestation 337 mennesker i 38 lande bundet til et skjult websted kaldet Velkommen til Video.

The site ran on Tor from June 2015 until March 2018. U.S. prosecutors later called it the largest child-sexual-exploitation marketplace ever found by volume of content: more than 250,000 videos, downloaded over a million times, about 1.2 million user accounts, roughly 4,000 paying members. Access was sold in Bitcoin. That was the mistake. Blockchain tracing led Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation and Homeland Security Investigations to the administrator, then to users.

NCA fandt stedet, mens undersøge geofysicist Matthew Falder, nu tjener 25 år efter at have indrømmet 137 lovovertrædelser, herunder tilskynde til voldtægt af børn og dele billeder af en nyfødt bliver misbrugt.

In the UK, 18 investigations came off the intelligence. Seven men were convicted, with terms up to 15 years. Kyle Fox, 26, got 22 years in March 2019 for raping a five-year-old boy and abusing a three-year-old girl in material connected to the site. Authorities said at least 23 abused children were identified and rescued in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Spain.

NCA officers identified 23-year-old Jong Woo Son of South Korea as the operator, traveled to Seoul in March 2018, and helped HSI and the IRS seize the server. Son served 18 months in South Korea. In October 2019 a D.C. grand jury charged him with nine counts. In July 2020 a Seoul court refused to extradite him. Campaigners, including the Women’s Party of Korea, called it a gift. South Korean prosecutors later went after him again for laundering the crypto proceeds.

NCA undersøgelser direktør Nikki Holland sagde mørke-web lovovertrædere "er ikke så tilsløret, som de tror, de er". The Welcome to Video takedown er stadig tilfældet agenturer citerer, når de hævder, at Bitcoin er en regnskabsbog, ikke en kappe. Det sidder ved siden af fængslet drab på Richard Huckle, hvis egne filer kom fra et mørke- web forum, og AEGIS Alliance rapporterer om Elysium-netværk.

Mistænkt udnyttelse af børn kan rapporteres i USA til NCMEC CyberTipline på 1800-8435678, og i Det Forenede Kongerige til NCA 's CEOP.