The host of a satellite television art auction program faces charges over a very dark art: receiving and distributing child porn via the Internet.
U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Anthony Logan May 25 at a Van Nuys, Calif., apartment as the net result of a child porn sting, ICE said late in the day.
“Sexual predators – particularly those who prey on infants and children – will not go unpunished for their despicable crimes,” says a statement from Scott Brown, resident agent-in-charge for ICE investigations in Fresno, where Logan’s case will be prosecuted. “We will continue to work closely with our enforcement partners to stop this heinous criminal activity.”
Logan's laptop and desktop computers were searched at the apartment, and ICE said "hundreds" of child porn images were found on them.
Logan is one of five original targets in a child porn distribution probe ICE said has turned up leads on more than 120 people. The probe began with a National Center for Missing and Exploited Children tip that led to the Fresno County Sheriff's Department and involved analyzing Logan's e-mail, where "a large volume of stored images and movie files" of child porn were turned up, ICE says.
"The images included prepubescent children engaged in sexually explicit conduct and children as young as a few months old being sexually abused by adults," the agency adds.
The cases have been part of the ICE's Operation Predator, which is believed to have netted more than 5,000 arrests since July 2003, 1,500 of which came from California, according to ICE.
Logan was known as the host of Fine Art Treasures, an art auction program aired live on DirecTV and the Dish Network and based in Beverly Hills. Neither he nor his attorney commented after his arraignment.
