Federal pedophilia sting nets 50 men
ARRESTED: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents take a pedophile suspect into custody in Santa Ana. ICE targeted pedophiles in Orange County as part of Operation Predator. Faces are blocked out by the agency.
Ron Rogers, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
MORE PHOTOS
AMONG THE ACCUSED
John Breault, 42, of Newport Beach:Charged with possession of child pornography. Investigated when the Newport Beach Police Department received information that he was videotaping children on the playground of a local elementary school. A search of Breault's home found videotapes containing footage of young children, and authorities say his computer contained more than 500 images of child pornography.
Michael Drake, 40, of Orange:Alleged to have tried to set up a date over the Internet with the children of a Florida man who was himself a convicted molester. Police, posing as the children's father, traced Drake to his home where they found numerous child pornographic images on his computer.
Andrew David Caballero, 47, of Cypress:Possessed dozens of videotapes and CDs that authorities say contained child pornography. Previously charged in state court with videotaping women in the shower without their consent.
Manuel Gonzalez-Rodriguez, 36, of Santa Ana:An undocumented Mexican national, Gonzalez was convicted in Orange County in December 1998 on charges stemming from an incident where he drugged and sexually assaulted two unconscious teenage girls.
SEXUAL PREDATORS BY THE NUMBERS
386:Orange County people arrested by federal agencies in past two years on suspicion of being sexual predators.
42:Orange County predator suspects arrested in past week.
6,000:Number arrested nationally since start of "Operation Predator," a federal effort to prosecute people who exploit or prey upon children.
17,000:Child-pornography images that authorities say they found on computer of one man arrested Wednesday.
Thursday, July 14, 2005
Federal pedophilia sting nets 50 men
The multi-agency operation is described as the largest such roundup ever in Southern California.
By GWENDOLYN DRISCOLL
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
SANTA ANA – A school-bus driver and a middle-school worker are among 50 men - the majority from Orange County - accused of sex crimes against children in what federal officials described as the largest multi-agency roundup of convicted and suspected pedophiles in Southern California.
Twenty-eight men - 20 of whom are Orange County residents - have been charged with possession or distribution of child pornography by the Orange County branch of the U.S. Attorney's Office, while the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency announced the arrest in the past week of 22 undocumented immigrants in Orange County who were convicted of crimes against children but never deported.
"This is the largest child-exploitation takedown in the history of the Southern California district," Wayne R. Gross, chief of the Orange County branch of the U.S. Attorney's Office, said at a press briefing Wednesday.
He described the child pornography found in the homes of some suspects as "repulsive depictions" that included pictures of children of all ages, including infants. "I can't imagine a more heinous form of child abuse," Gross said.
The identities of the victims depicted in the pornography found has not been determined, Gross said.
"If we can find the manufacturers (of the pornography), we'll go after them as aggressively as possible," he said.
Five of the 28 child-pornography suspects were arrested Wednesday, while nine suspects have agreed to plead guilty. The remaining criminal defendants will receive summonses in the next month, Gross said, but remain at large because they were determined to be "defendants who could be trusted."
Among those not in custody are John Breault, 42, of Newport Beach, who is alleged to have videotaped children on the playground of a local elementary school as well as to have more than 500 images of child pornography on his home computer.
Neighbor Brian May had asked Breault why police were seen removing items, including a computer, from his home almost two years ago.
"He wouldn't really explain it to me," said May, 36. "But this is really crazy because I have kids of my own. ... I definitely don't want him in our neighborhood."
Another defendant still at large, Darren William Bell, 36, of Anaheim, is alleged to have had more than 5,000 images of child pornography in his residence, including dozens of printed images kept in cardboard boxes.
All 22 undocumented immigrants whose past crimes, mostly sexual in nature, make them eligible for deportation are in the custody of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, with deportation hearings to begin within two weeks.
Many were caught after ICE officials crosschecked residency records with names found on sex-offender databases and the Megan's Law Web site.
Kumar Kibble, head of the ICE Orange County branch office, said gaps in the system account for why the undocumented sex offenders were not deported immediately upon completion of their prison sentence.
"In some cases, the fact that they are foreign nationals is not identified right away," Kibble said.
Kibble said ICE and other federal agencies were in the process of trying to "establish capacity" to track undocumented sex offenders but noted the limited resources his agency had to deal with the 80,000 criminal immigrants estimated to be at large in the United States.
"It's going to be an evolving process," he said.
The ages of the men charged in the sting ranged from early 20s to more than 70; their nationalities and ethnicities varied, and included European and Hispanic.
"This takedown reflects that sex predators come in all shapes and sizes," Gross said.
A common denominator in many of the child-pornography cases was the Internet, which authorities say was used by 24 of the 28 criminally charged defendents to distribute pornographic photos and video of children, as well as to communicate with other pedophiles via e-mail, Web sites and chat rooms.
In one such case, Michael Drake, 40, of Orange was arrested on suspicion of attempting to set up a date over the Internet with children through their parents in Florida. Drake made the assignation directly with the children's father, apparently unaware that his contact had been arrested and jailed on suspicion of molesting his own children. Police, posing as the parent over the Internet, tracked Drake to his duplex home on North Morgan Street, where they said they found numerous images of child pornography on his computer. "We just followed the cybertrail," Kibble said.
Other defendents used LimeWire and Kazaa peer-2-peer file-sharing programs to swap pornographic material, or chatted over Yahoo! e-groups.
Police were tipped off by a computer-repair technician when one man, Richard Don Beeman, 50, of Anaheim took his computer to a repair facility. A search of the computer found more than 1,500 images of child pornography, federal prosecutors said.
"With the advent of the Internet, it made these types of depictions commonly available to pedophiles," Kibble said.
Several of the men worked or were involved in child-related professions, including Ismael Vela Pinedo, 36, of Indio, who worked as a security guard at Woodrow Wilson Middle School, and Kenneth Lee Rankin, 53, of Victorville, who was employed as a school-bus driver in Lucerne Valley.
"I don't want to generalize because there are many good, clean individuals who (work with children) and do not engage in child pornography," said Richard Y. Lee, an assistant U.S. attorney involved in the sting. "But it is not uncommon for defendants like this to place themselves in situations where they have access to children."
Law enforcement experts could not explain the high number of Orange County residents charged in the sweep.
"There's a lot of wealth in this county and ... warm weather," Gross said. "It attracts a lot of fraudsters and it also attracts pedophiles."
Defendants convicted of child pornography possession face up to 10 years in prison, while those found distributing pornography must serve a minimum of five years and can be sentenced to up to 20 years.
"The message we have for people who are inclined to do that is to not do it," Gross said. "You will go away to prison for no less than five years."
Register staff writers Jennifer Muir and Salvador Hernandez contributed to this report.
Contact the writer: (714) 796-7722 or gdriscoll@ocregister.com
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