Tuckerton Man Busted for Running Child Porn Website

We are hearing more and more lately about the illegal activities taking place on the “Darknet”, the underground non-commercial part of the web, where IP addresses are not publicly shared, and therefore users can communicate with little fear of police interference.

A man from South Jersey is one of more than a dozen people arrested worldwide for allegedly running an underground child pornography website.

“Fourteen men operating a child pornography website on the Darknet’s Onion Router, also known as Tor, have been arrested and charged as part of a conspiracy to operate a child exploitation enterprise,” according to officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

According to the Asbury Park Press, Stanley Zdon, 27, of Tuckerton,  was one of the men arrested and is now being held in federal custody. Zdon was also among eight people nationwide indicted Nov. 14 by a federal grand jury in Louisiana on crimes involving the sexual exploitation of children, according to U.S. Attorney Kenneth Allen Polite Jr. He was charged with receipt of child pornography.

Operation Round Table was conducted as part of Homeland Security’s Operation Predator, aimed at identifying and rescuing victims of online sexual exploitation and to arrest abusers as well as others who own, trade and produce images of child pornography.

The international investigation involved victims from 39 states and five countries, according to a release from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Authorities encourage the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 866-DHS-2-ICE or by completing its online tip form.