XPost: alt.websites, alt.activism.children.molesters, sac.politics
XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, or.politics

When FBI agents arrived outside William Spearman's home in the quiet
suburb of Madison, Alabama, in November 2022, they were prepared for
danger.

Their search warrant was so important to the bureau that it was approved
by the FBI director himself. When the agents breached Spearman's door
with tactical explosives, Spearman fought back, tussling with the agents
as three of his handguns remained barely out of reach. The FBI managed
to handcuff and arrest Spearman, a high-value arrest, in what a top
Justice Department official called "one of the most successful"
prosecutions of its kind.

Spearman went by the nickname "Boss" and was labeled by the Justice
Department as "one of the most significant" purveyors of child sex abuse material in the world. His arrest in 2022, his guilty plea a year later
and his eventual life sentence were part of an unprecedented takedown of
a prodigious child abuse network.

Spearman is one of at least 18 people convicted so far of leading and
utilizing the dark web to share hundreds of thousands of unlawful
sexually exploitative images of children. The Justice Department calls
the investigation and prosecutions Operation Grayskull; it helped secure
those arrests and shutter four heavily trafficked dark web sites where
violent and horrific images of child sexual abuse were traded and
housed.

The Operation Grayskull investigation launched in 2020, when law
enforcement agents noticed a spike in traffic to a dark web site
suspected of hosting child abuse material. The dark web child abuse
sites eventually attracted more than 120,000 members, millions of files
and at least 100,000 visits in a single day, according to an FBI
official who spoke with CBS News.

"Even for prosecutors, it is difficult to understand how pervasive this
is," said Matthew Galeotti, head of the Justice Department Criminal
Division.

"Because it happens on the dark web, people aren't aware of it. It's
extremely troubling," he told CBS News.

Spearman's case has parallels to many of the others unearthed by
Operation Grayskull. Spearman was accused of helping lead a dark web
site with thousands of users and members. A sentencing memo submitted to
the court said it was "no wonder" that he had tried to resist the FBI,
rather than surrendering.

"The devices at his desk contained massive quantities of evidence
proving that he was the lead administrator of Website A," the memo said. "Unsurprisingly, the defendant's devices also contained an enormous
collection of images and videos depicting the rape and abuse of
children."

Selwyn Rosenstein was sentenced to 28 years in prison in 2022, for
operating a dark website for unlawful exploitative images. Prosecutors
said the platform "was not simply a website; it was a large, active
community of pedophiles and (abuse material) enthusiasts. And it existed
in part because of the Defendant's criminal acts."

Rosenstein possessed such a large quantity of abusive images, he needed
to store some on a server he used to run his business, according to the
Justice Department.

Speaking from a second floor conference room at Justice Department
headquarters in Washington last week, Galeotti told CBS News the members
of these dark web child abuse sites often "earn" membership by paying a
fee, "helping moderate the site" or contributing child abuse images or material.

Galeotti said, "We luckily have very sophisticated prosecutors and
agents who work specifically on this kind of thing. These are people who
have a more of a technical understanding."

"The defendants in this case, as sadistic as they may be, are somewhat sophisticated," and make use of encryption, he added.

Operation Grayskull also secured the conviction of Matthew Garrell of
Raleigh, North Carolina, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for
operating on a dark web site for abuse material.

"Garrell engaged in an extremely complex and technologically
sophisticated conspiracy that far exceeds the typical child-exploitation offenses," prosecutors said.

They argued in a court filing that Garrell possessed a predator's
"handbook," with "detailed instructions" for grooming children for
future abuse.

The takedown of dark web leaders and users also included the convictions
of men from Virginia, Maryland, Indiana, Texas, Washington, Arkansas,
Michigan and Oklahoma.

"They were part of an online community of hundreds of thousands of
people, with leadership roles rules and a common dedicated purpose" said
Chris Delzotto, an acting FBI deputy assistant director. Delzotto told
CBS News, "Few people would have envisioned how (child abuse materials)
would permeate the internet, the way it has today."

The federal investigation which uncovered and shuttered the first dark
web site, also led to the closure of three others. Abbigail Beccaccio,
an FBI unit chief, told CBS News. "The leadership team that operated one
of the sites also operated several of the others."

The Justice Department is touting the shutdown of those sites as a
victory to help deter future abuse or production of unlawful images.
"This is one of the most successful of all time," Galeotti said. "We
dismantled four websites that have not regenerated."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/justice-dept-shuts-down-dark-child-abuse-web sites/

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)