The problem with conducting undercover operations is that every time the police invent a better scam, in the end they educate the people they are trying to target. Some scams will be around for ever and will continue to work. But, more sophisticated operators will come up with countermeasures to expose an undercover operator. Sometimes the effort to innovate carries law enforcement a step too far, fbi-was-largest-distributer-of-child-porn-on-the-darknet.
In the early 90’s I played around with the idea of starting a bulletin board dealing with clandestine marijuana growing. I didn’t know anything about setting up a bulletin board, but why let something like that stop a good idea. Eventually I went to somebody who did know about bulletin boards. It quickly became obvious that I might catch one person within my jurisdiction. However, many hundreds or thousands more would go uninvestigated. So instead of an investigative tool my bulletin board would be a facilitator for growing marijuana, not the intent at all.
Think of the last episode of “COPS” you have seen where they were targeting “Johns” in a prostitution sting. They place a couple of female officers out on a street corner where hundreds of cars are passing by. The show focuses on the guys that stop. Ignore them for a moment.
The majority of the passing motorists don’t react to the officers. Some drivers don’t even see them. Some motorists assume they are waiting for a bus. Others hope that they don’t catch cold. (These people do not make for great TV). A smaller group sees the policewomen and thinks,’Yeah, a blow job would be nice,” but continues on their journey. Others in this group realize that $4.95 probably isn’t going to get them to their goal and drive on. A small number will make the block for a second look. Of those a few will approach and make the proposition and then it’s lights, camera and action. The crook, if you will, is self selecting. By the time the crook has agreed to pull up to the “Do Drop Inn” his fate is sealed. Keep this sting in mind while we talk about the FBI and the Dark Net.
The FBI took down a Porn site called the PlayPen it specialized in providing “kiddie porn” to its customers. The raid netted the FBI its hoard of kiddie porn, mailing lists, customer list and servers. Rather than pulling the plug, the FBI let the site continue operation for approximately three weeks. At the end of the operation the FBI indicted almost 200 kiddie porn users. During the time that the FBI had control of the site it is estimated that over 1,000,000 images were provided to customers. No body knows how many more criminal cases may be in the pipeline.
Defense attorneys are saying that the FBI overstepped its bounds. Had the FBI shut the operation down on the first day that they took over the site, then 1,000,000 images would not have made it to the marketplace. I can see them making this argument more defendant specific:
Defense: “Agent you arrested my client after he purchased 100 images on PlayPen?”
Agent:, “Yes sir,”
Defense: “These purchases took place during the time that the FBI had control of all aspects of the PlayPen operation?”
Agent; “Yes, sir,”
Defense: “During that time, that the FBI was dealing with my client, how many images did the FBI sell to other users? (Whole lotta wailing, gnashing of teeth, bitching and moaning, but ultimately 1,000,000).
The math just doesn’t add up. There is no way to tell that if the defendant had a 1000 or 1,000,000 image disposable income he would have indulged. My client is only a 100 image pervert. The FBI is a million image pervert. Let my pervert go!
Go back to our hooker decoys and let’s put them into the context that the FBI has found themselves in:
Supervisor: “We’ve decided to keep this thing running as long as possible, but we have limited resources.”
Decoys: “What do you need from us?”
Supervisor: “Instead of arresting every John that comes along, we’re going to arrest every eighth one.”
Decoys: “What do we do with the other seven?”
Supervisor: “We can’t have them exposing the operation, you’ll just have to take care of them.”
Decoys: “Silence, (undercover microphones have a noise canceling feature, that doesn’t transmit gunshots) followed by, “Worst damn case of suicide I ever seen.” Yeah fourteen times from two different guns, guess when it’s your time…. Bad Boys, Bad Boys
Some pundit tried to compare this FBI situation with “Fast and Furious”, that only demonstrates the pundit’s ignorance. Fast and Furious involved the actual physical transfer of lethal weapons from government control to outside of government control. Up until Fast and Furious there was a hard and fast rule, GUNS DON”T WALK. This means that crooks can touch, feel em, may be even shoot them, the only thing they can’t do is leave with a gun. The FBI was dealing with bits and bytes, I think the defense pushing the total number of images released is disingenuous. The FBI let 1,000,000 images walk, what if they can show that 999,999 images were recovered by arrest? The defense knows the FBI can’t and won’t do that. To do so could compromise other investigations.
My sympathies are with the FBI, but they needed a better end game. They don’t deserve everything they are gonna get, on this one, but they earned some of it.