The Scum In Our Midst

"It's a first for the magnitude of the victims saved. The amount of arrests internationally, also a first."
"This is equivalent to a stack of paper as tall as 1,500 CN Towers [seized images and videos -- 45 terabytes]."
"Officers located hundreds of thousands of images and videos detailing horrific sexual acts against very young children, some of the worst that they have ever viewed."
Inspector Joanna Beaven-Desjardins, Toronto Police sex crimes unit

Insp. Joanna Beaven-Desjardins, head of the Toronto police's sex crimes unit, speaks to the media in Toronto on Thursday, Nov. 14, 2013.

It is estimated that 386 children have been identified as victims of a mass pornography racket, and have now been rescued from the horrendous sexual exploitation they were subjected to.  A wide-sweeping, international child pornography investigation named Project Spade resulted in a three-year world-wide investigation into criminal child exploitation.

Arrested, and facing criminal charges are a range of people who enjoy respect and trust from the communities in which they live and work. Their casual and professional exposure to vulnerable children left them free for the opportunity to prey upon them. The group includes school teachers, doctors, nurses, pastors and foster parents, all facing criminal charges.

Project Spade resulted in 50 arrests in Ontario and 58 from other parts of Canada; a total of at least 348 individuals arrested around the world. And it began in October of 2010 when undercover police officers made contact with a man operating a business in Toronto's west end. Sharing child pornography online from his Internet site.

He is identified as 42-year-old Brian Way whose "exploitation movie, production and distribution company" called Azov Films, in operation since 2005, had profited to the tune of over $4-million from his odious business as a child predator enabler. He contracted out the creation of the child porn videos usually boys, aged 5 to 12, shot mostly in Ukraine and Romania, then distributed them.

 

Online filth: Police allege Brian Way, 42, instructed people around the world to create the videos of children ranging from 5 to 12 years of age, then distributed the videos via his company, Azov Films

Toronto Police and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service collaborated on recreating the customer database for the film distribution business. The information they gleaned shared with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Interpol, led to the arrests of clients and those considered to have been involved in the production of the videos.

While police are still searching for Mr. Way's mother for her involvement, he has been charged with 24 offences, including one in particular one that has been laid for the first time in Canada; instruction of a criminal organization for child pornography.

The acting deputy child inspector with U.S. Postal Services said that those arrested in the United States included a school employee who had secreted a video camera in a student washroom.

Massive haul: Canadian police described the Project Spade operation as one of the largest child porn busts they've ever seen