By Sarina Trangle
Authorities announced last week that the largest child porn sting in state history resulted in the arrest of 23 Queens residents, including an Ozone Park police officer, an Astoria nurse and a paramedic.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations team initiated the investigation, dubbed Operation Caireen, April 4 after arresting a Westchester County police chief on federal child pornography violations and a Brooklyn rabbi allegedly sharing illicit images over a peer-to-peer Internet network, agents said.
During the nearly six-week operation, agents and Police Department detectives said they infiltrated peer-to-peer networks and found roughly 150 Internet protocol addresses actively involved in trading sexually explicit content involving children.
Agents said 87 search warrants led to the arrest of 71 people, including Yong-Fa Wu, a police officer who lives in Ozone Park; Kenneth Gardner, a Westchester County Medical Center nurse who lives in Astoria; Aaron Young, a Fire Department paramedic from Queens; and 20 others.
“The sheer volume of confirmed and suspected instances of individuals engaging in sexual exploitation of children identified through Operation Caireen is shocking and the professional backgrounds of many of the defendants is troubling,” James T. Hayes Jr., Homeland Security Investigations’ special agent in charge of its New York office, said in a statement. “Clearly this criminal activity has reached epidemic proportions and ICE will continue to partner across jurisdictions to target those adults who egregiously violate the children of our communities.”
Young-Fa Wu, 34, was charged with promoting and possessing a sexual performance by a child after agents said they discovered two videos of roughly 11- to 13-year-old girls depicted in sexual acts among 60 files of investigative interest, according to the criminal complaint.
His attorney Thomas Kenniff could not immediately be reached for comment.
Gardner, 59, faces the same charges after he allegedly told authorities he had downloaded child pornography, according to a criminal complaint.
But his attorney Dennis Coppin said a full investigation would exonerate Gardner.
Young, 33, was charged with promoting a sexual performance by a child after prosecutors said agents found videos of toddlers engaged in sexual activity on his computer, according to a criminal complaint.
An attorney who represented Young during arraignment declined to comment.
Reach reporter Sarina Trangle at 718-260-4546 or by e-mail at strangle@cnglocal.com.
