DOCUMENT: Crime

FBI "Sex Tour" Site Lured Predators

Undercover online operation offered "exotic" overseas excursions

Gary Evans

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FBI "Sex Tour" Site Lured Predators

MAY 11--In an undercover operation targeting Americans seeking overseas sex tours, the FBI last year set up a web site that purported to offer "exotic excursions" to the Philippines and Thailand, where pedophiles often travel for sex with boys and girls.

Investigators last year established Wicked Adventures Travel and promoted the site in news groups like alt.pedophilia.boys and alt.sex.fetish.tinygirls. In their news group postings, agents with the FBI's Maryland-based Innocent Images Task Force wrote that the firm catered to clients "who want to travel to Exotic destinations accompanied by your specified companion," adding that "we provide you with confidentiality and safety as a top priority."

The Wicked Adventures site uses meta tags in its html pages to presumably lure prospective clients. Terms embedded in the site's pages include "sex tourism," "lolita," "nymphet," "asian virgins," "pedoland," and various phrases associated with child pornography ("pthc," "hussyfan," and "babyj").

Additionally, a "confidential information form" on the site asks prospective travelers about "age preference" for their "companion." The choices are 12 and under, 13-15, 16-17, and 18 and above. The form also seeks information about preferred activities and special interests. A screen grab of the Wicked Adventures homepage can be found here.

The FBI operation led yesterday to the arrest of Gary Evans, a 58-year-old Florida man who allegedly sent an August 2005 e-mail to the Wicked Adventures site proposing a partnership. Evans, pictured above, offered to help the company expand its sex tours to Honduras and Costa Rica, according a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Orlando.

Charged with arranging illicit sexual conduct with a minor, Evans faces a maximum of 30 years in prison if convicted of the felony count. (9 pages)