(WABC) — Two NYPD officers, an FDNY paramedic and a Little League coach are among 70 men and one woman arrested by federal authorities in a child pornography ring to be announced Wednesday.
The months-long investigation by federal authorities also nabbed a rabbi, a nurse and a Boy Scout den master.
Sources say that agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations have been seizing hard drives from the alleged pedophiles, who they say come from walks of life, including people in positions of trust.
One of them, NYPD Sergeant Alberto Randazzo, is accused of trading child porn and and chatting online with women who he would order to sexually abuse their children. He is charged with 57 counts of child pornography. The other officer was identified as Yong Wu. The NYPD had no immediate response.
Also charged is TSA supervisor Vernon Lythcott, who was arrested when he tried to leave JFK Airport for the Dominican Republic. He is accused of engaging in sex acts with two 15-year-old girls.
Court papers also charge New York Fire Department paradmedic Aaron Young with viewing pornography involving children as young as 2 years old.
The evidence collected could lead investigators to even more predators, authorities say, and possibly the rescue of victimized children.
Agents found the suspects on peer-to-peer file sharing networks, sources say, and the investigation broadened following the arrest of former Mount Pleasant police chief Brian Fanelli in January.
The arrests were carried out mainly in New York City and surrounding suburbs but are expected to lead to hundreds of other arrests around the country once agents track all the data from every computer hard drive seized.