The National Liberty Journal, Vol. 28, No.5, MAY 1999

by J.M. Smith -- Senior Editor

   We learn at an early age that there is nothing to fear from thunder.

   There are, however, exceptions to every rule.

   Such is the case with Operation Blue Ridge Thunder, an undercover police effort that is striking fear in the hearts of child pornographers and pedophiles nationwide.

   In recent months, members of the Thunder team have been responsible for bringing several aggressive child molesters and pornographers to justice.

   One of these individuals, Tom Rice, who was arrested earlier this year, once served as the chief of staff to former West Virginia Gov. Gaston Caperton.  A member of the Thunder team, posing as a young boy on the Internet, struck up a relationship with Rice.  Several weeks later, Rice traveled to central Virginia to meet the "boy," only to discover several sheriff's officers and federal agents awaiting him at the designated rendezvous point.

   Rice's arrest followed another high-profile arrest in central Virginia.  A prominent physician who had served in the community for several decades was arrested for harboring child pornography on his computer.

   The arrests of these two men generated a shocking reality check for area parents who now understand that individuals with depraved interests in children can be lurking anywhere.

   Other arrests nationwide, unrelated to the Blue Ridge Thunder operation, indicate that any community may have a man with a dangerous secret residing there.  The people of Port Huron, Mich., discovered this fact in April when Mayor Gerald Ackerman was arraigned on charges of having sexual contact with three underage girls and possessing child pornography.  And in March, Marvin Hersh, a computer science professor at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, was convicted on ten counts of alien smuggling and child pornography after he transported a Honduran boy in the States for illicit purposes.

   A $200,000 grant from the U.S. Justice Department has enabled the Bedford County anti-crime unit to spend untold hours cruising the Internet chat rooms where they have found an astonishing number of child pornography addicts, photo traders, kiddie-porn distributors and recruiters of children.  The sheriffs converse with individuals in chat rooms and instant message formats in hopes of developing relationships that will enable them to arrest the most aggressive offenders.

   The federal grant was a godsend to the group.  The Bedford County operation is, by far, the smallest agency nationwide receiving such funds.  However, they could be the most aggressive and successful unit.  The Bedford County operation joins with the Virginia State Police, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Postal Service in their endeavors.

   Bedford County Sheriff Mike Brown, a former Justice Department program director and consultant for the Central Intelligence Agency, heads the Operation Blue Ridge Thunder team.  Brown, a robust man with devout Christian beliefs, has brought an intensity to the operation that has spread among his troops.

The Cage

   Sheriff Brown permitted me to enter "The Cage," an area of his unit wherein members of the team pose as either children or child-porn traders on the Internet.  Within minutes after signing on his computer, Sergeant Sergio Kopelev, posing as a pedophile, had struck up conversations with several individuals with child porn files they wished to trade for similar files.  Several minutes later, Kopelev had received three child-porn files that contained images of adolescents in disturbing sexual situations.

   "Pedophiles used to sit around the parks and schools looking for victims," said Kopelev.  "Now they have a new medium on the Internet that provides them a perfect cover."  Kopelev, who heads the High Tech Crime Unit of the Bedford County Sheriff's Office, often poses as 13-year-old boys on the Internet to lure unsuspecting pedophiles into a web designed to trap them and halt their assault of children.

   "A pedophile's molestation of a child is such a heinous act," said Brown.  "Many people want to pretend like it isn't a problem, but they don't see what we see here.  This is a raging epidemic."

   Operation Blue Ridge Thunder now has about 75 cases under investigation.  Their most intense efforts are designed to prevent "travelers" from locating children to molest.  Travelers are individuals who will voyage internationally, depending upon their financial situation, "to sexually molest a child," said Brown.  "They range from a guy in a double-wide trailer to the chief of staff of a governor's office."

   Brown says that these individuals "use techniques to control and intimidate kids."  Once the pedophile gains dominance with the child, he can easily manipulate them and set up a place to meet and defile the child.

   "We will use every trick in the book, within our legal power, to catch these guys," said Kopelev, who is known as Bedford County's first "cybercop."

Parental Control

   The Blue Ridge Thunder team has learned that parents must get involved in their children's lives, specifically regarding their use of the Internet, to protect them from sexual exploitation by individuals roaming cyberspace looking for innocent victims.

   With at least 10.5 million children now on-line, and 45 million children expected by 2002, parents need to make sure their children are safely using the computer.

   The Operation Blue Ridge Thunder team has developed a "safe surfing" campaign that has taken them into area schools to teach children how to avoid the snare of pedophiles who continually search for new victims.

   They tell students of children in their own area who were contacted over the Internet by pedophiles.  The Thunder team recently found a 15-year-old local boy who had downloaded more than 500 sexually-explicit images of children and adults.  He had received the images from adults who are now being investigated.  In addition, a local girl was contacted by a Florida man about performing in a pornographic film.  no child left alone on a computer is safe from these belligerently assertive individuals.

   Brown says there are five key practices for parents who want to ensure Internet safety for their children:

   1)  Choose an Internet Service Provider (ISP) that allows you, as a parent, the ability to define and control what your child can view on the Internet.  You should prevent your child from having access to Internet Relay Chat (IRC) which maintains up to 12-14,000 chat channels, many of which are inhabited by pedophiles.

   2)  Know your child's world online.  Don't trust the ISP to protect your child.

   3)  Don't allow your child to be on-line without one parent being present.  In addition, do not give your child your Internet password or automatically store the password.

   4)  Don't allow your child to have a computer in their room.  Maintain all family computers in high-traffic areas of the home.  "Putting a computer in a child's room is one of the biggest mistakes parents can make," said Brown.

   5)  Make sure your child is comfortable enough to report any Internet contacts that disturb them.  Your child should feel he or she can tell you any problem facing them, no matter how embarrassing it may be to them.
 

   National Liberty Journal readers who are interested in receiving A Parent's Guide to Internet Safety, compiled by the Bedford County Sheriff's Office, and other important Internet-safety material, may call 540-534-9521.  Readers may visit the Blue Ridge Thunder Task Force web site:  www.blueridgethunder.com.  In addition, readers interested in helping Sheriff Brown and his task force fight child pornography may learn how to do so at the web site.