Law enforcement officials on Wednesday announced the closure of the largest child pornography site on the dark web, unsealed criminal charges against its South Korean operator and hundreds of users around the world.

The Welcome to video site has been described as “the largest child sexual exploitation market by content volume,” with more than a quarter of a million child pornography videos on Board when it was taken down in March 2018.

 American, British and South Korean officials announced this at a press conference in Washington.

The bust comes amid the proliferation of child pornography, much of it traded on the dark web. According to the UK’s National crime Agency (NCA), there are about 3 million registered user accounts in the top 10 “most harmful” child pornography sites on the dark web.

“Children around the world are safer because of the actions taken by U.S. and foreign law enforcement agencies to prosecute this case and recover funds for the victims,” said district of Columbia attorney Jessie K. Liu.  

Chung Woo Song, 23, who ran the site on the anonymous Tor network from his bedroom, was arrested last year and is currently serving an 18-month prison sentence in Korea. The son faces a nine count Federal indictment in the United States that was unsealed Wednesday. Liu declined to comment on his possible extradition to the United States.   

337 users arrested

Although the site was taken down more than a year and a half ago, officials said they used data generated by the site’s server to target users over the following months.  

A total of 337 users in two dozen U.S. States and 11 foreign countries were arrested on charges related to child pornography. Dozens of other suspects are under investigation.  

The arrested users ranged in age from 22 to 70. Some of them have already pleaded guilty and been convicted. Michael Lawson, 36, an active duty army soldier at Fort Benning in Georgia was sentenced to 121 months in prison after pleading guilty to one count of receiving child pornography. Agents found 41 videos of child pornography in his home.  

“Darknet sites that profit from the sexual exploitation of children are among the most vile and reprehensible forms of criminal behavior,” said assistant attorney General Brian A. Benchkowski.  

An internationally coordinated operation in the US, Spain and the UK rescued 23 underage victims who were ” actively abused by users of the site.” U.S. officials said they are working with law enforcement partners around the world to rescue other victims.  

Welcome to the Video working between 2015 and March 2018. Shunning adult porn, it allowed users to upload and download childish touched. The videos, which were shown on the site, show children, babies and toddlers engaging in sexual acts.

The site was one of those that allows users to trade child pornography using cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin allow users to send and receive cash anonymously. During these three years of operation, the site received cryptocurrency payments worth more than $370,000.

According to Song’s indictment, welcome to Video had more than 1.3 million unique bitcoin addresses created for users, indicating that the website could serve at least 1 million users.

Payment tracking

By examining Bitcoin transactions, officials were able to track payments made on the website, identify its administrator and find its server in the bedroom of the Hotel.

“Regardless of the illegal scheme, and whether the proceeds are virtual or tangible, we will continue to work with our Federal and international partners to track down these heinous organizations and bring them to justice,” said don Fort, head of criminal investigation for the IRS.

The welcome to video site first came to the attention of the British NCA during its investigation of convicted British serial paedophile Matthew Falder, according to Paul Jenkins, a senior NCA official.

“It was after this investigation that we initiated a task force response to users and enablers Welcome to the video site,” Jenkins said.