To date, 27 individuals have been arrested and admitted to the
prior molestation of over 36 children. More arrests are anticipated
during the week and in coming months.
FBI Director Robert Mueller said, “The FBI will diligently
pursue and arrest those individuals who exploit our children by
distributing, producing and exchanging child pornographic images.”
He added, “We will diligently shut down any and all web sites,
egroups, bulletin boards, and any other mediums that will foster
the continued exploitation of our children.”
Yahoo!’s Groups allow users to correspond with like-minded
persons via e-mail, chat, bulletin boards, and file transfers.
Operation Candyman, named after the targeted Group's title, was a
one year undercover operation to identify and prosecute as many of
the Group’s estimated 7,000 members as possible. The Candyman Group
allowed collectors and distributors of child pornography to use
on-line resources to retrieve and distribute child pornography.
The Candyman Group site has been shut down. The FBI estimates
that there were over 7,000 members with around 2,400 residing
outside the US. It plans to continue its investigations against the
other members.
