Massive Child Porn Sweep - OPERATION CHICKENHAWK

Press Release

		PRESS RELEASE Pursuant to Cal Govt. Code Sect 6254(f) San Jose Police Department Press Information Office 201 W. Mission Street, San Jose, CA 95110 Ph (408) 277-5339 Fax (408) 286-0923

Massive Child Porn Sweep - OPERATION CHICKENHAWK

Filed under Press Release, on 7/18/2012 7:07:00 PM by Author: Sergeant Jason Dwyer #3551.

EVENT: Silicon Valley Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force - Mass Sweep	DATE: 7/19/2012

LOCATION: 20 Locations throughout Santa Clara County

COMMAND POST: Scottish Rite Temple, 2455 Masonic Drive, San Jose

MEDIA CONTACT: Sgt. Jason Dwyer will be available at the command post at approximately 9:00 A.M. On-camera interviews may be conducted at the Command Post. Once some of the search warrant addresses have been secured, we hope to provide them to the media for B-roll footage.

San Jose:

Over 165 detectives from 30 law enforcement agencies are collaborating with the Silicon Valley Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force in a County-wide sweep today known as "Operation Chickenhawk." This is the largest child porn sweep ever in Northern California.

Local detectives included teams from San Jose, Santa Clara, Mountain View, Los Gatos, and Santa Cruz Police Departments, the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department, the FBI, the U.S. Postal Service and the Department of Homeland Security (Homeland Security Investigations). These agencies are all part of the Silicon Valley ICAC Task Force.

Detectives are targeting a cluster of suspected child pornography users that have been detected in Santa Clara County. Officers will execute 20 search warrants throughout Santa Clara County in an attempt to seize evidence linking the suspects to the distribution and or possession of child pornography.

The Silicon Valley ICAC Task Force has been in existence for approximately 9 years and is one of 61 around the nation targeting peer-to-peer file sharing online. ICAC's efforts have evolved from previous investigative techniques in which suspects were identified through chatroom decoy operations. Investigators search for hard-core images involving pre-pubescent children. They use a variety of investigative techniques to identify suspects involved in possessing and distributing child pornography. Detectives then obtain search warrants for those homes. The San Jose Police Department is the lead agency for the Silicon Valley ICAC Task Force and was responsible for the 20 separate investigations that led to this sweep.

One of the tools used by ICAC is a mobile forensics lab which allows investigators to drive up to a suspect's home, seize hard drives and immediately begin searching for evidence that would normally take months to obtain from a State Department of Justice laboratory. This mobile lab was funded by both the Department of Justice and State of California grants.

The Silicon Valley ICAC Task Force has arrested over 40 men for possession of child pornography since January. The task force has conducted a number of child porn sweeps in the Bay Area over the last few months, including multiple arrests in Marin County, Sonoma County, Monterey County, Alameda County, San Jose and Oakland.