Local investigation sparks global child porn arrests
TORON TO • At least 386 children have been rescued from sexual exploitation and hundreds of suspects arrested in a sweeping child pornography investigation that began with a Toronto man, police revealed Thursday.
“It’s a first for the magnitude of the victims saved,” said Inspector Joanna Beaven-Desjardins, of the Toronto Policee Service’s sex crimes unit. “The amount of arrests inter- nationally, also a first.”
At least 348 people were arrested around the world as part of Project Spade, including 50 in Ontario and 58 from other parts of Canada.
School teachers, doctors, nurses, pastors and foster parents are among those facing charges in the wide-ranging operation that can be traced to a business in Toronto’s west end.
The investigation was sparked in October 2010, when undercover officers contacted a Toronto man on the Internet who was allegedly sharing child pornography online.
Police allege Brian Way, 42, had been running an “exploitation movie, production and distribution com- pany” called Azov Films since 2005, and had made more than $4-million from the business.
Through his company, he would allegedly contract people to create child porn videos involving children, usually boys, aged five to 12. Many of the videos were shot in Ukraine and Romania in apartments, dingy saunas and backyards.
Then they were distributed from Toronto — through the mail and the Internet — to customers worldwide.
After Mr. Way was arrested in May 2011, Toronto Police and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service spent months re-creating his customer database.
That information was shared with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Interpol, which led to arrests of customers and those thought to have created the videos.
Mr. Way has been charged with 24 offences, including instruction of a criminal organization, a charge police said had been applied for the first time in Canada for child pornography. Police are still looking for his mother, Susan Waslov.
The sheer amount of images and videos seized — 45 terabytes — was staggering. “This is equivalent to a stack of paper as tall as 1,500 CN Towers,” said Insp. Beaven-Desjardins.
“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.”
Gerald O’Farrell, acting deputy chief inspector with U.S. Postal, said those arrested included a school employee who allegedly hid a video camera in a student washroom.