The Smoking Gun reports: In what appears to be a Department of Justice first, federal officials today included the word “bukkake” in a press release announcing the arrest of a Brazilian man for allegedly distributing obscene material. According to federal prosecutors, Danilo Simoes Croce, 42, operated web sites offering “obscene videos for download or delivery in the U.S.. The videos depicted bukkake, fisting, and depictions of defecation, urination, and vomiting in conjunction with sex acts.”
The Sao Paulo man was arrested this week in Florida, where he was charged with conspiracy to distribute obscene material, a felony carrying a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $150,000 fine. In a revoltingly detailed criminal complaint, postal inspector Linda Walker provides a shot-by-shot description of some of the films purchased from Croce’s sites by undercover investigators, who have been targeting the operation for more than three years. Some of titles carefully reviewed by Inspector Walker were “Toilet Man 6,” “Bukkake 3,” and “Scat Pleasures,” according to the complaint, excerpts of which you’ll find below. In the Croce document, Walker also includes a brief “background on fetish-type” films, in case readers (like, say, a square U.S. magistrate judge) were unfamiliar with terms such as “fisting.” The Croce case is the latest major prosecution brought as a result of the Bush administration’s initiative against hard-core pornography. In a communication last year to the FBI’s 56 field offices, the anti-obscenity campaign was described as “one of the top priorities” of Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez and FBI Director Robert Mueller.
Back story: Danilo Simoes Croce, 42, of Sao Paulo, Brazil, was arrested in Orlando, Fla. on charges of conspiracy to distribute obscene matters, the Department of Justice and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service announced today. If convicted, Croce faces up to five years in prison and a $150,000 fine.
According to documents filed in the District Court in Orlando, Croce and his corporation, Lex Multimedia, operated web sites offering obscene videos for download or delivery in the U.S. The videos depicted bukkake, fisting, and depictions of defecation, urination, and vomiting in conjunction with sex acts. These web sites are being hosted on web servers in Texas. Croce’s videos are delivered to his U.S. customers by mail and common carriers from a location in Orlando, Fla.
“The investigative efforts in this case not only fully endorse the Postal Inspection Service’s commitment to the Attorney General’s initiative against hard core pornography, it sends a loud message to those involved that they operate at enormous risk of apprehension,” said Henry Gutierrez, Inspector-in-Charge, U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Miami.
An arrest is not proof of guilt. The defendant is presumed innocent until and unless he is found guilty.
The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Richard D. Green and Matthew Buzzelli of the Obscenity Prosecution Task Force within the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Roger Handberg of the U.S. Attorneys’ Office for the Middle District of Florida.
The obscenity investigation is being led the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Investigative assistance was also provided by agents from the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement of the Department of Homeland Security from Orlando, Fla.