WASHINGTON (AP) -- Law enforcement officials in the United States and Russia have shut down a Russian Web site that sold videotapes worldwide depicting children performing sexual acts. Many of the tapes, costing $200 to $300, were shipped to the United States.
The Customs Service, which worked with Moscow city police, announced the action Monday.
Operation Blue Orchid, named after the shuttered Web site, resulted in four arrests and the issuance of 15 search warrants in the United States, customs said. Five people also have been arrested in Russia. The Web site was shut down in December, said customs spokesman Dennis Murphy.
"The United States Customs Service is working aggressively with law enforcement officials both here and abroad in making a worldwide assault on the producers, distributors and purchasers of child pornography sold over the Internet," said acting Customs Commissioner Charles Winwood.
An estimated 100,000 Web sites worldwide are involved in some way with child pornography, customs estimates. Online child pornography is a problem that has grown with the worldwide popularity of the Internet, law enforcement officials say.
Unlike some Web sites where child pornography videos can be digitally transmitted to people, the Blue Orchid site was used to sell and promote videotapes that would be shipped to customers, Murphy said.
Blue Orchid customers would wire cash, then send an e-mail with instructions on where to send a videotape. Videotapes were shipped via private courier or the postal service. Prices ranged from $200 to $300. Customs said seized records indicated that while videotapes were shipped worldwide, the majority of them were sent to the United States. Customs officials estimated that hundreds of videotapes were sold worldwide.
The investigation, which continues, started in May, when Moscow police asked customs for help. After customs conducted an undercover purchase of a videotape from the site, Moscow police were led in December to Vsevolod Solntsev-Elbe, one of the alleged Web site operators.
Russian police detained Elbe and a 13-year-old boy, whom Elbe had allegedly transported to Moscow for the purpose of sexual exploitation, customs said. Police seized 400 videotapes, video duplication equipment and sales and shipping records from Elbe's apartment. He was arrested Dec. 10.
Sergey Garbko, the other alleged Web site operator, was arrested by Russian authorities on Dec. 18, customs officials said.
As a result of the search of Elbe's apartment, information was sent to customs, identifying people who allegedly had ordered child pornography from the Web site.
That led U.S. officials to Glenn Martikean of Portage, Ind., who was arrested by customs agents Jan. 31. He was indicted Friday by a grand jury in the Northern District of Indiana on charges of importing child pornography and interstate and foreign travel to engage in sexual activity with minors, customs said.
The names of the three other people who were arrested in the United States were not released.
Customs said Russian authorities on March 2 arrested Victor Razumov on charges that he molested and sexually abused a 15-year-old boy during the making of two videos, "Thief's Punishment I and II," which were among the tapes sold on Blue Orchid.
Another actor in the videos, Aleksei Tormazov, was arrested March 15. Video cameraman Yuri Arkhipov was arrested Feb. 27 and later killed himself, customs officials said.
