Posted on 02/28/2004 11:55:23 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
February 27, 2004
By Jace Radke
<jace@lasvegassun.com>
LAS VEGAS SUN
Using resources brought together to fight terrorism, a newly combined federal agency has been able to root out thousands of case of child pornography across the country.
In Nevada, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Operation Predator, which targets child pornography and sex crimes, has arrested 46 illegal immigrants and one Nevadan.
Sources said that the search warrant served recently on casino executive Kenny Wynn, the brother of casino magnate Steve Wynn, was part of the operation's investigation into child pornography.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents seized a computer from Kenny Wynn and are analyzing what was on it, sources said.
The new agency, created as part of the government's reorganization to fight terrorism, has been able to compare databases of immigrants with a database of felons. That's something that couldn't be done before the agency was created because information wasn't easily obtained from the different agencies.
The new agency has a much broader range of law enforcement capabilities, allowing for the investigation of child pornography on the Internet or other sexually related crimes, Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Garrison Courtney said.
From their database search the agents can then focus on the immigrants who fit the agency's criteria, and those investigations can lead to agents finding websites where people troll for children online, authorities said.
Investigators then use those sites to generate new leads. In Las Vegas, federal officials said more than a dozen search warrants have been served in connection with Operation Predator.
Sources said agents obtained the federal search warrant served on Kenny Wynn after finding his name on a website, so agents are searching his computer for images of child pornography.
The search warrant has been sealed.
Kenny Wynn has not been charged with any crime. He could not be reached for comment, and calls to Steve Wynn's office seeking comment were not returned.
Criminal defense attorney Richard Wright confirmed that he has been retained by Kenny Wynn in connection with the search warrant, but said Thursday that he had no comment.
Operation Predator was designed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to protect young people from child prostitution, trafficking, pornography and sexual tourism, by targeting fugitive criminal aliens with sex offense histories.
Since the investigation began in July nearly 2,000 people have been arrested nationwide -- most of them immigrants who had some sort of sexual offense on their record, generally grounds for deportation.
Agents said there have been 46 "fugitive aliens," illegal immigrants who had been convicted of a felony in the past, who were arrested in Las Vegas and then deported.
Agency officials refused to discuss details of those cases and would not discuss whether the illegal immigrants arrested here had been living or working here. They had likely either been convicted and not been deported, or they sneaked back into the country. Agents said a majority had sex crimes in their backgrounds.
"Anyone who is not a naturalized U.S. citizen can be deported for having been convicted of a felony," Courtney said. "If they have convictions of some kind with acts against juveniles we make sure we take them off the street, and we remove those that we can."
Illegal aliens and those that have green cards can be expelled from the country for having a felony conviction, Courtney said.
Lawful permanent residents who commit sex offense crimes can be placed in immigration removal proceedings, but criminal aliens who have no immigration status, or who have been previously ordered deported, can be removed without a judicial hearing, federal officials said.
Earlier this month agents arrested a Nevadan -- Las Vegas resident Harold Richard Shaw, a Mormon church camp counselor, who was charged in connection with the operation.
Operation Predator also focuses on sexual tourism which involves Americans who travel overseas to have sex with children, authorities said.
Child prostitution, trafficking, pornography and sexual tourism are crimes that affect millions and generate billions of dollars worldwide, federal officials said.
Operation Predator is one of the many programs that have been instituted by law enforcement agencies to help combat child pornography and sex crimes against children. The FBI runs a sting operation that involves undercover agents posing as teenagers in online chat rooms.
The sexually charged chats often lead to a sexual predator planning to meet the teen for sex, but when the predator arrives at the agreed upon location he is arrested by the FBI and charged with traveling with the intent to have sex with a minor.
Nationally, online child pornography and sex exploitation cases have exploded in recent years. The FBI cases jumped from 113 in 1996 to 2,370 in 2002.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Nevada filed charges in only three child porn-related cases in 2000, but that number jumped to 17 cases in 2003.
"Prosecuting crimes against the exploitable is one of the District of Nevada's top prosecution priorities," said Natalie Collins, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney for Nevada.
In the most recent federal prosecution relating to child pornography, Benjamin Ross Sadberry of Las Vegas was sentenced to 32 months in prison last month after pleading guilty to possession of child pornography.
It is anticipated that the number of cases opened and the resources used to address the crime problem will continue to rise during the next several years, according to the FBI website.
"We're always opening cases in this area," Las Vegas FBI spokesman Special Agent Todd Palmer said. "We have six agents working full time on these types of crimes."
Immigration and Customs Enforcement's investigation of Kenny Wynn is not the first time Wynn has had trouble with law enforcers.
In the 1990s, Kenny Wynn was subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury in a high-profile drug case. He publicly admitted a drug abuse problem, paid a $10,000 fine and surrendered his gaming license for a year.
Kenny Wynn recently resigned as president of Wynn Design & Development. That company is supervising the construction of Steve Wynn's new resort-casino, Wynn Las Vegas, on the Strip, according to a 2002 regulatory filing by Steve Wynn's company, Wynn Las Vegas LLC.
There has been no reason given for Kenny Wynn's resignation.
Good!
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