TAMPA, Fla. — Two Florida men are accused of being part of the world’s largest dark web marketplace for child porn.
A federal grand jury in Washington D.C. indicted Jong Woo Son, a 23-year-old South Korean man, who investigators claim was running the marketplace.
The website, called “Welcome to Video,” was home to more than 200,000 different videos that showed toddlers, babies and children being sexually abused.
The U.S. Department of Justice said Lakeland man Jack R. Dove, 38, was arrested for knowingly receiving and possessing visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
Dove is set to go to trial in December.
Michael Matthew White, 39, of Miami Beach, Florida, was arrested in the Southern District of Florida for coercion and enticement.
Federal officials said the videos were sold and processed for 7,300 Bitcoin, or more than $730,000. U.S. authorities said there have been 337 arrests worldwide in at least 38 counties.
“Darknet sites that profit from the sexual exploitation of children are among the most vile and reprehensible forms of criminal behavior,” said Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “This Administration will not allow child predators to use lawless online spaces as a shield. Today’s takedown demonstrates that the Department of Justice remains firmly committed to working closely with our partners in South Korea and around the world to rescue child victims and bring to justice the perpetrators of these abhorrent crimes.”
Prosecutors said Son was already serving an 18-month sentence in South Korea after he was convicted on charges related to child porn, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The indictment said agents from around the world, including the Korean National Police in South Korea, arrested Son and seized the server that he used to operate the Dark web child pornography site.
The operation is also responsible for rescuing more than 20 minors abused by users of the site in the United States, Spain and the United Kingdom.
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