Fact Sheet: Operation Predator - Targeting child exploitation and sexual crimes

June 25, 2012

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the largest investigative agency in the Department of Homeland Security, places a high priority on enforcing laws that combat the sexual exploitation of children. Under Operation Predator, the agency’s flagship initiative targeting child sex predators, ICE has made more than 8,000 criminal arrests since 2003.

Each year, millions of children fall prey to sexual predators. Experts estimate that one-in-five girls and one-in-10 boys in the United States will be sexually exploited before they reach adulthood. These young victims are left with permanent psychological, physical and emotional scars. Operation Predator identifies, investigates and arrests child predators. Operation Predator draws on ICE's unique investigative and enforcement authorities to safeguard children. Coordinated nationally and internationally, this initiative brings together an array of ICE disciplines and resources to target these child sex abusers. As part of the effort:

  • ICE created the National Child Victim Identification System in partnership with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, the FBI, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the U.S. Secret Service, the Department of Justice, the Internet Crimes Against Children task forces and other agencies.
  • ICE agents stationed internationally work with foreign governments, Interpol and others to enhance coordination and cooperation on crimes that cross borders.
  • ICE is a member of the Virtual Global Taskforce, joining law enforcement agencies around the world to fight child exploitation information and images that travel over the Internet.

Operation Predator Results

Since inception, ICE has criminally arrested more than 8,000 child predators nationwide, including a number of individuals who have committed a wide range of child sex exploitation crimes.

Traveling Child Sexual Offenders

Working cooperatively with foreign governments through ICE attaché offices, ICE agents have made 99 arrests under the traveling child sex offender provisions of the 2003 Protect Act. Of those, 99 have been convicted and others are still being investigated.

For example, in October 2008, a New Jersey man pleaded guilty in Newark to three counts of traveling to Thailand with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct, and one count each of producing and possessing child pornography. Wayne Nelson Corliss was the subject of a worldwide Interpol alert, based only on an anonymous photo, which brought ICE agents the leads they needed to locate and arrest him. Since then, two other men in Alabama have pleaded guilty to traveling with Corliss to Thailand to have sex with young boys.

Internet Child Pornography

Drawing on the agency's cybercrime investigative expertise and international law enforcement partnerships, ICE tackles crimes that cross the nation's virtual borders.

For example, In December 2009, HSI initiated an investigation with the Department of Justice’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section into an online forum known as Dreamboard. The investigation was named Operation Delego. The forum was identified by individuals during proffer sessions stemming from another joint investigation into an online forum known as TheCacheBBS. The investigation revealed that there was an overlap between membership of TheCacheBBS and Dreamboard. The investigation also revealed that the Dreamboard members were actively posting and trading hard core child pornography involving children as young as infants. The investigation identified more than 600 members of the forum. To date, more than 70 individuals have been indicted in the United States and in 13 countries around the globe.

Victim Identification Program

The HSI Child Exploitation Investigations Unit participates in an Interpol-based Victim Identification Program. The Victim Identification Program combines HSI’s technological and investigative capabilities and resources to rescue victims of child sexual abuse. Since the program’s inception in November 2011, HSI agents have identified and located 16 victims depicted in child abuse images and identified 12 additional child victims of sexual abuse.

Predators Face Severe Penalties

Several laws increase the probability that sexual predators who harm children will suffer severe consequences, including the Mann Act, the 1994 Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Act, the 2003 Protect Act and the 2006 Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act. Federal law bars U.S. residents from engaging in sexual or pornographic activities anywhere in the world with a child under 18. ICE works with law enforcement agencies and advocacy groups around the globe to investigate crimes of this nature. Those convicted in the United States face significant penalties:

  • Maximum 30 years in prison for possession, manufacture, distribution of child pornography.
  • Maximum 30 years in prison for traveling child sex offender, facilitator of sex with children, or a participant in these crimes.
  • Maximum life sentence for sex trafficking children for prostitution.

How You Can Help

Report suspicious activity to ICE, 1-866-347-2423 or www.ICE.gov/tips.

Report suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, 1-800-843-5678 or http://www.cybertipline.com.