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	The United States has announced it has dismantled a massive international child abuse online ring, one of the largest such operations ever uncovered.</p>
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	Authorities said they arrested and charged 14 suspects in the secret, members-only online network, which had more than 27,000 subscribers.</p>
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	The website&#39;s juvenile victims, who numbered more than 250, reside in five foreign countries and 39 US states, officials said.</p>
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	Authorities said the victims were, for the most part, boys between the ages of 10 and 17.</p>
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	Among the countries where victims were found are Britain, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Belgium.</p>
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	The organisation is &quot;one of the largest known online child exploitation operations in history,&quot; Department of Homeland Security chief Jeh Johnson said.</p>
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	Among the suspects taken into custody was Jonathan Johnson, 27, the administrator of the website, which operated out of the southern US state of Louisiana.</p>
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	If convicted, Mr Johnson faces 20 years to life in prison, said Kenneth Allen Polite, US Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana.</p>
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	&quot;These indictments represent a strong coordinated strike... against child pornography and those who allegedly seek to harm our most vulnerable citizens, our young children,&quot; Mr Polite said.</p>
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	The illicit website operated on a hidden service board on the Tor network from about June 2012 until June 2013, when Mr Johnson was arrested.</p>
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	The Tor network is set up to conceal user&#39;s location, making it possible to maintain online anonymity.</p>
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	Authorities said at the time it was dismantled, the illegal website contained more than 2,000 shared webcam-captured videos of mostly juvenile boys enticed by the website&#39;s operators to produce sexually explicit material.</p>
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	The investigation, which officials said is continuing, was carried out by DHS and the cybercrime unit of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the US Postal Inspection Services.</p>
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	http://www.rte.ie/news/2014/0319/603145-child-abuse-/</p>
