The National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction

Operation MarcyOperation Marcy (2002-2003) was an ICE investigation into 40 Internet communities dedicatedto the exchange of child pornography. These communities accounted for more than 20,000images of child pornography and yielded 37,000 e-mail addresses of subscribers worldwide.Operation Site KeyOperation SiteKey began in February 2002, and was an FBI and ICAC operation targeting athird-party billing company (site key) that serviced more than 70 pornographic web sites, manyof which offered child pornography. The Site Key customer database identified approximately20,000 customers.Operation Shadowz BrotherhoodOperation Shadowz Brotherhood (2001) is an example of a case involving an international,Internet pedophile group. The Shadowz Brotherhood group was highly secretive and operated anencrypted web site through which its 70 to 100 members could trade child pornography,including images of group members sexually abusing children. The members were highlyorganized, with several individuals designated “administrators” of the site, and individualmembers being given various degrees of access to the site depending on specific criteria. Thegroup prided itself on security and all members were instructed on how to re-route messagesthrough various servers and hide all traces of their identity. The investigation was international inscope and, through cooperation among various European countries and the United States, led tothe arrest of 46 men in 12 countries.Unnamed Ongoing InvestigationAn unnamed ongoing operation (2006-present) being conducted by ICE-C3, to date, hasidentified more than 230 child pornography web sites, estimated to account for upward of 90percent of the commercial child pornography web sites in existence, and in excess of 60,000transactions 99 (each for a subscription costing $79.95 to $99.95 per month) to the sites. Morethan 30,000 of those transactions came from U.S.-based customers. The criminal organizationmade an estimated $5 million to $7 million (USD) during the nearly 2 years it was active.The investigation revealed that the group running the web sites, operating out of Eastern Europeand having ties to other parts of Europe and the United States, appeared to be motivated solelyby profit rather than by any particular interest in the content of the sites. The group is wellorganized, with individual members playing specific roles in the distribution chain. The groupuses proxy servers and other means to obscure their true identities and locations. The enterprise99 Transactions of 60,000 do not equal 60,000 customers because, in numerous instances, one customer mademultiple purchases.A-7