Police detail years-long investigation into 'big box' child porn retailer

Ontario Provincial Police Inspector Tina Chalk reacts during a question from the media during a press conference in Vaughan, Ont., on Thursday, June 20, 2019. Multiple charges have been laid following an international investigation into an Ontario-based child pornography ring. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Lahodynskyj

VAUGHAN, Ont. -- A Toronto web-hosting business whose servers distributed child pornography around the world was fully aware of the "horrific" content it was supplying and needed to be held responsible, provincial police said Thursday as they charged five men at the company.

The arrests following an investigation into a website described as a "big box store of child pornography" should put similar companies on notice, the force said, noting that the site was allegedly run by someone in Vietnam but given a platform by Ontario-based YesUp Media.

Among the charges laid were several counts of "duty to report" internet child pornography, which the force believed were laid for the first time under a federal law that came into effect in 2011.

Under the law, internet service providers must make a report to authorities if they learn their businesses are used to commit child pornography offences. It also makes them responsible for reporting websites where child pornography is available if they are aware of them.

"I'm proud of the leadership being demonstrated to address the web hosts and administrators who, in Canada, have a legal duty and a responsibility to respond when they are made aware that illegal content is being trafficked through their infrastructure," said Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner Thomas Carrique.

"We're taking down the infrastructure that holds their monstrous content."

Det. Insp. David MacDonald said Toronto police launched an investigation in 2012 and quickly realized it involved an operation that stretched around the globe.

The website at the centre of the probe had about 60,000 users in 116 countries, he said, and about 19,000 people purchased 30-day memberships to allow for faster downloads of child pornography.

"Some of these images of children were horrific, just horrific," MacDonald said.

The site was run by a man in Vietnam but used servers owned by YesUp, which was aware of the content, police alleged.

Within six months police had shut the website down, raided the Toronto company and seized 32 of their servers, MacDonald said.

Investigators had focused initially on those who uploaded and downloaded the images. But by 2014, police launched a separate probe that targeted the operators of the business. The OPP had help from Toronto police, the RCMP and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

"We took the infrastructure used by the website out of operation," MacDonald said. "The OPP is proud of this precedent-setting investigation."

YesUp Media did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Daniel Hittner, a representative with Homeland Security, said they will be watching the court proceedings in the case closely.

"This is, I think, a positive way forward to hold companies accountable," Hittner said, adding that the investigation "has had a large impact on the United States."

More than 2,000 suspects have been identified as a result of the investigation and 100 cases of child pornography are either underway or completed, Hittner said.

The five men from the Toronto company were arrested last week, OPP said. Three come from Richmond Hill, Ont., one from Aurora, Ont., and one from Toronto.

The accused have all been ordered to surrender their passports and are due in court in Toronto on Aug. 1.

The OPP said they have also issued a Canada-wide warrant for the Vietnamese man they allege ran the website, but they believe he's still in his home country.

With no extradition agreement between Canada and Vietnam, detaining him has proved tricky, said MacDonald, adding that he nonetheless believed the man would be in custody soon.