Chicago Area Local News

CHICAGO (CBS) ― Authorities say four suspects who call themselves "boy lovers" traded child porn and enticed kids to engage in sexual activity over the Internet.

The FBI on Monday announced the arrests of the four men from Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin, who are accused of targeting boys between the ages of 8 and 11. The men attended parties where they viewed and trade child porn, according to criminal complaints.

Among the allegations, some of the men enticed children over the Internet to take off their clothes and engage in sexual activity, one of the men photographed an acquaintance having sex with a young boy and two of the men surreptitiously took photos and video of young boys at Six Flags Great America.

According to the criminal complaints:

Jose Carlos Garcia, 22, of 1419 Muirfield in Schererville, Ind., was charged with receiving, transporting and shipping child porn;

Corey Stinefast, 27, of 1107 83rd St. in Kenosha, was charged with distribution of child porn;

Neal Maschke, 40, of 0 North 248 Easton Ave. in West Chicago, was charged with possession of child porn;

Mark McGill, 24, of 1825 Arbor Lane in Crest Hill, was charged with distribution of child porn.

The FBI began investigating an informal group of self-described "boy lovers" this June, a release from the Chicago FBI office said. The FBI's Innocent Images Task Force instituted an undercover investigation, utilizing a cooperating witness and undercover Special Agents.

The investigation culminated this past weekend when Garcia and Maschke met with a cooperating witness and undercover agents at a hotel in Skokie. The two were arrested Saturday evening at that hotel. Stinefast was arrested in Kenosha Saturday evening and McGill was arrested earlier Monday, according to the FBI.

Sheriff's police from Cook and Lake County (Illinois), as well as police departments from Skokie, Crest Hill, Milwaukee and Kenosha, assisted in the investigation, the FBI said.

Garcia, according to the criminal complaint, is alleged to have met a man in St. Louis, Mo. and that he took about 20 pictures of that man having sexual contact with a male relative who was approximately 10 - 11 years old. Garcia also talked about using a Web site to entice young boys to display their genitals and masturbate, the complaint said. He allegedly recorded at least three sessions from this Web site.

In a call last month with the cooperating witness, Garcia said he had met more than 100 boys on the Xbox Live Web site, and that he wanted to go to the Chicago Air & Water Show to take pictures of young boys. Additionally, according to his criminal complaint, Garcia met Stinefast at Great America last month. Stinefast brought a high-definition video camera and a digital still camera to the amusement park and the two photographed young boys they saw. According to the complaint, the two men both spoke about taking bathroom trips in order to look at little boys in the bathrooms.

During the meeting this past Saturday Maschke stated that he works as a clerk for the Clerk's Office of DuPage County, the complaint said. When Maschke entered the hotel room, he began watching child pornography videos that were playing on the TV screen. He then went to his laptop computer that was displaying child pornography videos, and according to the complaint, appeared to open files on the computer to display a different child pornography video.

He then went to his Jeep that was in the hotel parking lot and retrieved two thumb drives that contained a mix of pornography. Shortly before midnight on September 19, agents entered the hotel room and ended the meeting. Garcia, Maschke and one other person were taken into custody.

According to the criminal complaint, one of Maschke's thumb drives, organized into 38 folders, which bore titles such as "man-boy love," "naked boyhood," and "youngteen," appeared to contain more than 1,000 images, which were believed to constitute child pornography, such as a boy between 10 and 12 years old getting raped by two adult men.

McGill, in a conversation with a cooperating witness, described, in substance, how shortly after getting Internet access, he continually downloaded child pornography and was like a "fiend," obtaining "more and more and more," the complaint said.

In all, agents recovered thousands of images of child porn as a result of the investigation.

Garcia and Stinefast appeared before Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Cole in Chicago Sunday morning, at which time they were formally charged.

Maschke appeared before Judge Cole Monday, at which time he was formally charged and McGill was scheduled to appear before Magistrate Judge Nan Nolan Monday afternoon, according to the release.

Those who already appeared in court were ordered held pending their next scheduled court appearance.

If convicted of the charges filed against them, Garcia, Stinefast and McGill each face a mandatory minimum sentence of at least five years in prison, to a maximum of 20 years. Maschke, if convicted, faces a maximum of 10 years behind bars.

The STNG Wire contributed to this report.

(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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