KIDDIE-PORN BLITZ ROLLS INTO CANADA

Thomas Reedy, 37, and his wife, Janice, 31, both of Fort Worth, had a Web site that served as a gateway to a world of kiddie porn.  The site provided access to sites based in Russia and Indonesia that showed children as young as 4 years old engaged in sex acts.  Along with R.W. Kusuma and Hanny Ingganata of Indonesia and Boris Greenberg of Russia and the Reedys' business Landslide Inc., also were indicted.  The Reedy's were arrested and an 87 count indictment was announced.  The foreign residents, who live overseas, were not arrested.  Paul E. Coggins, US attorney for the Northern District of Texas said he would try to extradite them but he could not say whether authorities in Indonesia and Russia were cooperating.  The maximum penalty for each count is 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

After deliberating 6 1/2 hours, a federal jury convicted Thomas Reedy and his company, Landslide, on all 89 counts of an indictment accusing him of distribution of child pornography, sexual exploitation of minors and related charges.  Janice Reedy was convicted on 87 of the 89 counts.  The two counts on which she was acquitted had to do with 70 pornographic images on two of the couple's home computers, which were used mainly by Thomas Reedy.  The Reedy's were accused of giving Landslide subscribers access to Internet sites displaying child pornography for fees ranging from $14.95 to $29.95 per month per site.  The sites were maintained by the foreign Web masters.  One hundred people have been arrested as part of the undercover sting investigation into the largest known commercial child pornography business ever uncovered.  Called Operation Avalanche, the undercover operation was based on intelligence developed from the Landslide investigation and encompassed 30 federally funded task forces formed to combat Internet crimes against children.  New Yorkers caught in the kiddie-porn sting are:

-     Christopher Celauro, 31, Brooklyn, arrested October 5, 2000.

- Dominic Russano, 48, Brooklyn, arrested June 6, 2000; pleaded guilty February 5, sentenced to one year probation.

- Dennis Prieto, 34, Queens, arrested June 2, 2000.

- Shariff Omar, 30, Queens, arrested May 26, 2000; pleaded guilty January 29, 2001, and placed on probation.

- Fernando Carasco, 25, Manhattan, arrested July 27, 2000; pleaded guilty June 29; hasn't been sentenced.

- Michael Funderburke, 47, Suffern, arrested April 18.

- Ronald Skibbin, 49, Suffern, arrested June 16, 2000; pleaded guilty on October 18, 2000; sentenced to five years' probation.

The massive kiddie-porn crackdown is roaring into Canada, where as many as 2,000 Internet perverts could be collared soon.  Federal agents have stepped up their work with Canadian authorities to hunt down and nail sex fiends who thought they could get away with buying and selling child porn north of the border.  The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said the joint investigation began after US authorities contacted them during their two year long probe of Landslide Products.

(Fort Worth, Texas)