Action
Along with the Chicago Task Force and the Arizona Organized Crime and Racketeering Bureau, the operation involved raids in Austin, Plano, Cincinnati, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Newark, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Richmond, Tucson, San Diego, San Jose, and San Francisco. The raids were centered in Arizona, where the press conference occurred.
Raids generally took place in middle-class suburbs and targeted credit card thieves and telephone abusers. They were carried out by local police, with the aid of over 150 Secret Service agents. Twenty-seven search warrants, resulting in three arrests, were issued and executed on May 7 and 8, 1990. Police also took around 42 computers and approximately 25 BBSes, making it the largest crackdown on electronic bulletin boards in world history. Finally, about 23,000 floppy disks were also seized. These held a variety of data, including software and other pirated material. The three people arrested were "Tony the Trashman," "Dr. Ripco," and "Electra."
Other parts of the operation targeted the underground ezine Phrack, which had published the contents of a proprietary text file copied from Bell South computers and containing information about the E911 emergency response system, although this was later made null in a court case in which it was proven that the same information about the E911 system was also provided to the public through a mail-order catalog.
Read more about this topic: Operation Sundevil
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