Crackdown on sex fiends

An El Salvadoran immigrant living illegally in New York is nabbed for allegedly sexually abusing a 6-year-old boy.
A circus clown known to children as "Spanky" is arrested in North Carolina on child pornography charges.

A Baltimore man is taken into custody after allegedly having sex with boys in the Philippines and Cambodia.

Within the past year, federal agents have rounded up 3,247 sex offenders as part of a sweeping Department of Homeland Security crackdown targeting pedophiles, international sex tourists and Internet predators, officials said yesterday.

The arrests made by Operation Predator, which began a year ago today, include 175 busts in New York, trailing only Texas, California and New Jersey in the number of arrests.

Many of the sex fiends were illegal immigrants and foreigners seeking permanent residency who had been convicted of sex crimes but somehow had evaded deportation.

"Our message to the people who commit these crimes is it was the intention of Congress to deport you and it is our intention to do that," said Martin Ficke, special agent in charge of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's New York office.

Ficke said about four out of every 10 of the child predators arrested in New York were legal permanent residents who lost their green cards after being caught by Operation Predator.

A series of predawn raids in January also resulted in the arrests of 29 illegal aliens in Westchester County who had been convicted of sex crimes involving children.

Ficke urged anyone with information about child predators within the United States or U.S. residents who travel abroad to have sex with minors to call 1-866-DHS-2ICE.