CHILD PORN BUST: Operation was sophisticated, massive

A veteran child porn investigator says the operation cops smashed this week was breathtaking in its scope.

OPP investigators arrested five men who allegedly were involved with a web hosting company that was home base for a vile Vietnamese child pornography operation.

Cops called it a “big box store” filled with “really, really horrific” child pornography.

The operation — housed in a nondescript North York office building — hosted the child porn website that had 60,000 registered users in 116 countries.

The sicko’s servers contained 19,000 child pornography files that had been downloaded 19 million times.

“Looking at the server banks this would have taken a huge length of time to set up, let alone creating the database of images and videos that were offered,” Keith Daniels told The Toronto Sun from his Florida home.

Daniels was one of the pioneers of child pornography investigations, starting with the Ottawa Police before setting up task forces around the U.S.

In his day, detectives would not have been able to get their heads around an operation of this magnitude.

“Thank God we didn’t get one like this, we would never be able to handle it … even with all of the investigators put together in Canada,” he said.

“The takedown and forensics would have taken years.”

The number of suspects arrested in Canada as a result of the investigation and a sister probe was 331. Daniels called the number “huge.”

“It indicates that the problem is still becoming more pervasive,” he said. ” An analysis of victimology will not only take years but will likely never get done.”

While the veteran detective said the volume of potential information is huge, “a PhD. thesis from this would require millions of dollars.”

“But it would also produce some valuable insight into preferences,” he added.

In some respects, the pornographers and their enablers were sophisticated in their distribution — they were also sloppy.

Another law enforcement source told the Sun it appears detectives in the probe began working backward and snagged the child porn enthusiasts credit card information.

“Once you have that you can identify suspects — and often victims — from around the world,” the source said.

The Toronto-area suspects arrested last week were all affiliated in one way or another with a web hosting company called YesUp Media.

Cops believe the men knew violent child pornography was nestled in the depths of their servers but didn’t care.

It’s believed they were engaged by a Vietnamese web administrator named Vinh Van Nguyen, 35, to host the sickening videos and images.

Investigators say the arrests mark the first time in Canada that charges have been laid against those associated with web hosting companies.

The five men arrested are: Chin Choi (Peter) Kok, 52, of Richmond Hill; Wen (Larry) Li, 31, of Toronto; Sui Hua (Jeff) Ye, 47, of Aurora; Zhen He (Patrick) Zeng, 40, of Richmond Hill; and Zhen Yu (Jeff) Zeng, 42, also of Richmond Hill.

They face charges for making child porn available, accessing child porn and failure to report child pornography.

A Canada-wide warrant has also been issued for the website’s suspected owner, Vinh Van Nguyen, 35, who is on the run in Vietnam.

The Toronto-area men are back in court Aug. 1.