Operation Avalanche
The Reedy case led to the creation of a nationwide network of 30 federally funded task forces to fight Internet crimes against children. In August 2001, Attorney General John Ashcroft and Chief Postal Inspector Kenneth Weaver announced the launch of Operation Avalanche, a police operation to gather evidence against users of the Landslide gateway and payment system. The seized database records included 35,000 US subscribers, some of whom were targeted with invitations to purchase child pornography by mail. The Chicago Tribune reported that the government also continued to run the Reedys' Landslide website for a time as part of the sting. As a result of Operation Avalanche, one hundred suspects were arrested following 144 searches in 37 states.
The FBI then passed identities from the database to the police organizations of other countries, including 7,272 names to the UK and 2,329 names to Canada. Initial results of the operation seemed positive, as the gateway site and payment system were closed down and thousands of possible users of child pornography websites were identified for later investigation. However, later events somewhat diminished the luster.
Read more about this topic: Operation Avalanche (child Pornography Investigation)
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