Brian Musomba Maweu, a child pornography producer from Kenya, received a life sentence on Monday.  He had been extradited to the U.S. from Kenya in 2014.  In December 2009, Operation Delego was launched to investigate a child exploitation website called Dreamboard, of which Maweu was a contributing member.

“The board was a private, members-only, online bulletin board that was created and operated to promote pedophilia and encourage the sexual abuse of very young children in an environment designed to avoid law enforcement detection.”

United States Department of Justice

A total of 72 individuals were charged as a result of Operation Delego, fifteen of which are only known by their online identities and have not been arrested yet.

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OUR TAKE:

• Child pornography investigations often span several years and require international cooperation. For example, dozens of law enforcement agencies across multiple countries were part of Operation Delego, and arrests were made on all five continents.
• One of the biggest challenges for investigators is encryption, which involves encoding information in such a way that only authorized parties can read it.
• In the U.S., ICE encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 1-866-DHS-2ICE. This hotline is staffed around the clock by investigators. Tips or other information can also be submitted to ICE online. Tips may be reported anonymously.
• In Canada, you can make a report through Cybertip.