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The U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday it dismantled the “world’s largest” child sexual marketplace, arresting hundreds of pedophiles around the world who were involved in child sexual exploitation on the dark web.

The child pornography website, “Welcome to Video,” contained over 250,000 videos featuring children engaged in sexual acts, including toddlers and infants being raped, and were downloaded millions of times internationally.

“Do not upload adult porn,” the site’s upload page explicitly stated.

According to the Justice Department, the depraved network operated on the “dark web,” which allows access only to only who have special software that conceals their identities. The site also relied on cryptocurrency to sell access, allowing users to hide their identities during financial transactions.

Law enforcement officials in the United Kingdom and South Korea teamed up with U.S. intelligence agencies in the bust.

Federal prosecutors have so far rescued at least 23 underage victims in the United States, Spain and Britain who were featured on the site suffering sexual assault, while the majority of abused children have yet to be identified or located, the DOJ said.

The 250,000 videos obtained by the Justice Department, 45 percent of which authorities did not know existed, are currently undergoing examination by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, according to the Justice Department.

The DOJ also revealed it has so far apprehended and charged 338 of the sites users that resided in the 23 states, including Alabama, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington State and Washington, D.C.

Assailants were also arrested and charged in 12 other countries, including the United Kingdom, South Korea, Germany, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the Czech Republic, Canada, Ireland, Spain, Brazil and Australia. The racketeers range in age from 22 to 70.

While tracing darknet sites is typically imperviable, the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division, which monitors criminal violations of the IRS Code, was instrumental in breaking the case.

IRS-CI Chief Don Fort issued a statement explaining the federal agency monitored bitcoin sales to pinpoint the location of the website’s server.

“Through the sophisticated tracing of bitcoin transactions, IRS-CI special agents were able to determine the location of the Darknet server, identify the administrator of the website and ultimately track down the website server’s physical location in South Korea,” he explained.

“This large-scale criminal enterprise that endangered the safety of children around the world is no more. Regardless of the illicit scheme, and whether the proceeds are virtual or tangible, we will continue to work with our federal and international partners to track down these disgusting organizations and bring them to justice,” Fort continued.

Welcome to Video amassed over $370,000 worth of bitcoin, which it laundered through unspecified digital currency exchanges, before law enforcement agencies uncovered the heinous debauchery and shut down the site down in March 2018.

Jong Woo Son, a 23-year-old South Korean national who worked as Welcome To Video’s operator, was charged in August 2018 with conspiracy to advertise, produce and distribute child pornography and found guilty.

Son is currently serving a mere 18-month prison sentence in his native country, but his indictment was sealed until Wednesday when he was indicted on federal charges in Washington.  

One site user convicted in Britain “was jailed for 22 years for raping a five-year-old boy and appearing on Welcome To Video sexually abusing a three-year-old girl,” according to Britain’s National Crime Agency.

 “Sadly, advances in technology have enabled child predators to hide behind the dark web and cryptocurrency to further their criminal activity,” the Acting Executive Associate Director for Homeland Security Investigations, Alysa Erichs, said in a statement. “However, today’s indictment sends a strong message to criminals that no matter how sophisticated the technology or how widespread the network, child exploitation will not be tolerated in the United States.”

Every individual involved in child sex crimes and using the internet as a shield will face the wrath of the Trump administration, warned Justice Department Criminal Division Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski.

“Darknet sites that profit from the sexual exploitation of children are among the most vile and reprehensible forms of criminal behavior,” Benczkowski said in a statement. “This administration will not allow child predators to use lawless online spaces as a shield. Today’s announcement demonstrates that the Department of Justice remains firmly committed to working closely with our partners in South Korea and around the world to rescue child victims and bring to justice the perpetrators of these abhorrent crimes.”

Children around the world are safer because of the actions taken by the administration and foreign law enforcement, added Executive Associate Director for Homeland Security Investigations Alysa Erich.

“Sadly, advances in technology have enabled child predators to hide behind the dark web and cryptocurrency to further their criminal activity,” she said in a statement. “However, today’s indictment sends a strong message to criminals that no matter how sophisticated the technology or how widespread the network, child exploitation will not be tolerated in the United States.”

The Justice Department is currently prodding Big Tech to implement a system that allows law enforcement to bypass the encryption that protects messaging apps, citing the fight against child pornography as the primary reason.

Earlier this month, Attorney General William Barr urged Facebook to hold off on its encryption plans in an open letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, warning end-to-end encryption impedes law enforcement officials from resolving illegal activity that transpires.