Federal Bureau of Investigation agents aided by Kaua’i Police Department officers conducted searches on the island Monday as part of Operation Candyman, a national crackdown on people exchanging child pornography over the Internet. No arrests were made on Kaua’i, according
Federal Bureau of Investigation agents aided by Kaua’i Police Department officers conducted searches on the island Monday as part of Operation Candyman, a national crackdown on people exchanging child pornography over the Internet.
No arrests were made on Kaua’i, according to Beth Tokioka, county public information officer. The investigation is ongoing, arrests have occurred on other islands, and more arrests across the state are likely, said Dan Dzwilewski, Honolulu FBI agent-in-charge.
The FBI executive assistant director for criminal investigations and cyber-crime said he’d like to see searches conducted every day, to keep the pressure on. Over 266 searches were conducted nationwide during the first phase of Operation Candyman.
The FBI Monday announced the existence of Operation Candyman, a year-long undercover investigation named for one of three Internet sites that are the subject of investigations and where visitors exchanged graphic and pornographic images of children.
The FBI said it has worked with Yahoo and other Internet Service Providers to shut down the offensive sites, and is using the e-mail addresses of visitors to the sites to track down those thought to have engaged in trafficking in child pornography or attempts to solicit sex with children, Dzwilewski said.
It is illegal to receive or possess child pornography.
As of Monday, the sweep had resulted in criminal charges against over 89 people in 26 states, with at least 50 more people expected to be arrested before the end of this week.
Some 7,000 people around the world registered e-mail addresses with the Candyman site, and authorities were able to trace 1,400 people in the United States through those addresses.
An FBI official in charge of the agency’s child crime unit called the images exchanged on the Candyman site as “very explicit” and “hard-core.”
On the Mainland, those arrested included Catholic priests and clergymen of other faiths, school bus drivers, childcare workers, school teachers and others.
Dzwilewski would not say how many people were arrested in Hawai’i, or their professions, only that all are men.
He said those arrested so far in Hawai’i come from a cross-section of society, like those arrested on the Mainland.
“Lots of people are linked up to the network,” and some were passing child pornography nationwide via the Internet. Some were soliciting sex with children via the Internet, and others were ordering child pornography through the Internet, he said.
Additional arrests are expected across Hawai’i, including, possibly, Kaua’i, “wherever the investigation takes us,” said Dzwilewski.
The investigation in Hawai’i and on Guam is led by the Crimes Against Children Task Force, which includes the U.S. Customs Service, county police departments, the state Department of the Attorney General and FBI.
