But club members used secret passwords to meet in private chat rooms that constantly changed to avoid the relentless pursuit of federal agents, obsessed with their capture. But fearful of continued molestation of future victims, police decided to act. In September 1998, U.S. Custom s officials coordinated a simultaneous worldwide raid in 14 countries. Evidence gathered during these search warrants indicated membership in the club in 47 additional countries. Shortly after these police raids, four club members, including a retired U.S. Air Force pilot, committed suicide.
Exposure can be the pedophile s worst enemy.
From a law enforcement perspective, the dramatic increase of child porn on the Internet has not gone unnoticed. There are hundreds of police initiatives already in place to combat this new threat to our children. But the pornographers and child predators are clever and the unique mode of the crime poses special problems for police investigation. These cases are essentially technical in nature and require specially trained investigators. Since Internet child porn and abuse are a recent development, there is a lack of case law on the subject and occasionally, some jurisdictional confusion.