ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, May 10, 1996 TAG: 9605100061
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: PIERRE THOMAS THE WASHINGTON POST
THE U.S. POSTAL SERVICE may nab as many as 70 more as the result of a two-year investigation into child pornography.
The U.S. Postal Service announced Thursday that it operated a mail order pornography company for nearly two years as part of an undercover investigation targeted at people who purchased illicit materials depicting children in sex acts.
``Project Special Delivery'','' as the operation came to be known,-mfk- has resulted in charges against 45 people so far with as many as 70 others still facing possible arrest, postal officials said. The probe offered an unusual insight into the illegal market for child pornography and provided evidence of large-scale exploitation of children abroad to meet the U.S. demand for such materials, law enforcement officials said.
In Virginia, searches were conducted in Chesapeake and Charlotte, Orange and Montgomery counties, The Associated Press reported. Howard C. Guthrie of Chesapeake pleaded guilty in December to two federal counts of receiving and possessing child pornography and was sentenced in March to two years in prison.
The investigation began in December 1993 after stunned residents complained to the Postal Service that they were receiving unsolicited catalogs from a company known as Overseas Male that offered pornographic videos made in Mexico and other locations abroad. Much of the inventory depicted children as young as 7 engaged in explicit sexual acts with adults and other juveniles.
Postal agents said they identified James Leroy Kemmish of San Diego as the U.S. distributor for Overseas Male, and Customs agents arrested him in June 1994 as he attempted to enter the United States from Mexico with pornographic videos and $16,000 in cash. A search of Kemmish's home netted 200 videos of child pornography, 60 videotapes packaged for mailing and more than 2,000 letters marketing the tapes, which sold for between $50 and $290, depending on the age of the children. A review of the company's financial records showed it had grossed about $10,000 per week during one six-month period.
Subsequent investigation determined that Kemmish's supplier was Troy A. Frank, who lived near Mexico City. Frank, who committed suicide after learning he was the target of an investigation, is believed to have produced hundreds of videos using children from Mexico and the Netherlands. Frank had been a fugitive since 1990, wanted in Greeley, Colo., on child pornography charges. Kemmish has since pleaded guilty to child pornography charges and is serving a five-year prison term.
Postal officials said they decided to continue their investigation after uncovering Frank and Kemmish in part because of the fairly high probability they would find child pornography consumers who were also abusing children.-mfk-
Shutting down Overseas Male ``wasn't enough, because those who created the demand for child pornography were still out there,'' said Kenneth J. Hunter, chief postal inspector. ``Pedophiles aren't always strangers in your community. They are men of every social stratum and occupation: teachers, professors, computer programmers, youth leaders - even members of the clergy.''
In roughly 30 percent of the 2,600 investigations carried out since the Child Protection Act was enacted in May 1984, postal inspectors have uncovered evidence of sexual abuse of children by the consumers of child pornography.
Armed with a list of Overseas Male's 2,000 paying customers, postal inspectors designed a marketing campaign for their sting operation known as ``Island Male,'' soliciting many of those customers through sexually explicit letters.
Thus far, at least 23 suspects have been identified as involved in current or past sexual abuse of children. Others are under investigation.
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