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Article Launched: 8/04/2006 12:00 AM
Predators beware Area agents target child molesters
Stacia Glenn, Staff Writer
San Bernardino County Sun
A seedy subculture swimming with child predators is submerged in every community, skulking just beneath the surface of society.
Parents typically think their neighborhoods are safe. They drop the kids off to teachers, priests and Boy Scout leaders without ever doubting their safety. They dismissively shake their heads at the thought someone they know could be abusing youngsters.
But predators don't just lurk in shadows.
Oftentimes they are invited into our homes, looked up to as role models and considered above suspicion. Knowing this, they prey upon the most vulnerable members of society again and again.
Fighting to keep children safe from those who would steal their innocence are agents of Operation Predator, a nationwide Immigration and Customs Enforcement initiative formed in 2003 when the Immigration and Naturalization Service and Customs Service combined their sex- offender programs.
Locally, a tough six-member Inland Empire crew tracks down more than the boogeymen who make children cower in darkness and in dreams.
In the three years since it was formed, agents in the Inland Empire branch have arrested more than 220 men in connection with crimes against children, including possession of child pornography, molestation, human trafficking and sex tourism.
"These are real children and real victims," said Lloyd Schultz, group supervisor for the Inland Empire's Operation Predator office in San Bernardino . "People forget they're not little plastic figures or pictures."
More than half of the caseload for the local Operation Predator office focuses on possession or distribution of child pornography.
It's a ghastly job.
Agents have to spend countless hours watching videos of kids being molested or abused by the very same people who should be protecting them. They have to find a way to separate themselves from the on-screen horror because, as Schultz points out, "Somebody's gotta do it."
High-tech equipment zeros in on the little ones' facial features so they can be added to the National Child Victim Identification System, a database to track victims. Specialists stare intently into the background, looking for any clues as to where the tape was shot.
And they're usually successful.
Operation Predator's Inland Empire office managed to close every case thus far and prosecute each predator.
More than 40 child- exploitation cases have been investigated since 2003, and ICE agents have provided other local agencies with 49 leads.
Currently, 24 cases are being investigated and 10 are in various states of prosecution.
A high-profile case that has sent ripples across San Bernardino and Riverside counties is that of 62-year-old Earl Venton Buchanan, a Bloomington man arrested July 3 after trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border with a 5-year-old boy from Banning on his lap.
Authorities searched his van and found a videotape of Buchanan molesting a small boy. Records show Buchanan admitted to being the man in the video, yet he pleaded not guilty to federal charges of kidnapping, molestation and transportation of child pornography.
Buchanan is counted among the 1,945 arrests made in California since the inception of Operation Predator, which is twice the amount of any other state. The next highest is Texas, where 700 child predators have been nabbed.
"California is one of the most popular states, and we have a significant amount of ICE agents working here," said ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice. "It makes sense that with a large amount of ICE agents working in California, you would probably have a significant volume of cases."
Another reason Southern California has more than its share of predators is its closeness to Mexico and the number of foreign nationals who choose to make their homes here.
Several suspects, like Buchanan, have been caught transporting children and child pornography across the border. Some, though not as many, have trafficked kids into another country to sell them for sex.
In the Inland Empire alone, 179 men have been convicted of a sex crime, served their time and been deported to their home country. Fifteen of those were arrested a second time and placed in a federal prison for about 72 months after returning to the United States.
"They just didn't think they'd get caught," said Doraluz Ancona, assistant agent in charge at ICE's local office, shaking her head.
There is no set profile for a child predator, no discernible way of picking them out of a crowd.
They are often pillars of the community.
A sheriff's deputy, minister and teacher have been picked up in the Inland Empire by ICE agents.
A "Dateline" sting in Riverside County earlier this year netted 50 suspected predators in three days, many of them in shockingly respected positions: a high school teacher, a rabbi and a press secretary for the Department of Homeland Security. All thought they were coming to have sex with a minor, authorities said.
"These are people who occupy trusted positions in the community," Ancona said.
Holding respectable positions in the community means the case is usually high profile and generates massive amounts of disbelief from those who never suspected.
That is the case with Jon Winningham, a longtime Calimesa councilman who faces 10 felony counts of intent to distribute child pornography and three misdemeanor counts of possession of child pornography. He pleaded not guilty and is awaiting a preliminary hearing in Riverside Superior Court.
Winningham's arrest was not part of Operation Predator.
He was first arrested in October after two men handed police a computer disk with downloaded child pornography images they said came from Winningham's home computer. No charges were filed at that time.
The councilman was arrested a second time in February after forensic specialists said they discovered 1,126 pornographic images on his home computer, city-owned laptop and various computer media.
Many researchers and law-enforcement officials believe possessing and distributing child pornography is increasing because of the Internet.
The National Juvenile Online Victimization Study found 1,713 arrests were made nationally in 2000. An estimated 2,600 arrests were made nationwide in 2001 for Internet-related sex crimes against children, according to the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire.
Operation Predator launched a nationwide sting in 2004, dubbed Operation Falcon, to bring down a commercial child- pornography site where people paid to download images.
Regpay, a Belarus-based Internet billing firm, provided credit- card billing services for 50 child- pornography Web sites around the world.
Out of the 1,200 people arrested, five were from the Inland Empire.
Yet some say sex crimes against kids are decreasing.
There has been a 40 percent decline in the estimated number of child sexual- abuse substantiations since 1992, according to the Crimes Against Children Research Center.
The center's director, David Finklehor, said most crime has been declining since 1993.
"People don't feel it or notice it because it's actually being covered more extensively (by the media) than it used to be," he said. "They feel more endangered, but it's actually gone down."
Whether these types of crimes are rising or falling, Inland Empire ICE agents still labor around the clock to bring down child predators.
Their lives are not their own.
Few spend sick days recuperating on the couch. Vacations are ended early by a single call. And forget holidays.
"We will put in whatever time it takes to catch every predator here," Schultz vowed.
When the ICE agents aren't hunched over a computer or tracking down leads, they are shooting at the range, being trained in tactical entry or practicing hand-to-hand combat.
After passing an exhaustive screening process by the Department of Homeland Security, they must spend 22 weeks at a federal law- enforcement training center in Georgia, immersed in customs and immigration law, search techniques and firearms training.
Such a grueling, time-demanding job might chase some off. Witnessing all the atrocities done to kids might scare away others.
So, why do they do it?
"It's a personal satisfaction that I'm giving back to my community," said Ancona, a mother of two. "I want to make sure those kids that are out there are protected as much as possible."
"The biggest motivator is, these aren't ambiguous cases," Schultz said. "There's a cut-and-dried bad guy. There's a cut-and-dried victim. It's gotta be done."
And so, the chain continues.
ICE agents stalk the predators who stalk our children.
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