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Federal agents in July arrested 56-year-old Robert Alan Mucha, a former Passaic resident who they said was part of an international child porn ring, several of whose members “shared his sexual fascination with child cannibalism.”
Those people included Michael D. Arnett, who was arrested in May and charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Kansas with producing child pornography.
“On multiple occasions, Mucha and Arnett discussed their mutual interest in kidnapping, raping, and eating children,” U.S. Attorney Paul S. Fishman said in a release this morning.
In October 2010, Mucha convinced a 15-year-old boy to travel from New Jersey to Pennsylvania to spend the day with him and then sleep over at Mucha’s apartment in Stroudsberg, Pa., says a complaint filed by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) unit in Newark.
Following his arrest four months ago, he admitted to sexual contact with the teenager, it says — as well as “his interest in eroticized child cannibalism.”
Mucha, who most recently lived in Newton, worked as a volunteer emergency medical technician in Andover and also previously taught band and Bugle Corps to teenagers in Belleville and Lakewood, authorities said.
During a post-arrest statement, Mucha admitted that over the course of his life he has touched hundreds of boys for his own sexual gratification, the federal complaint alleges.
ICE agents in Boston cracked the case after finding victims who appeared in seized images of child pornography. In one instance, they identified a water bottle in one of the photographs as coming from a swim and scuba center in Kansas City — leading them to Arnett.
Following the publicity of Arnett’s arrest, other victims came forward — including one who told investigators that Arnett’s best friend held a gun to his head and forced him into oral sex when he was a boy.
Federal agents found Arnett’s online correspondence with several other men, including Mucha, they said. Other men arrested and charged came from Largo, Fla., Worster, Mass., Anderson, Calif. and Grant, N.M., records show.
There have been many more.
In 2010, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts and HSI Boston arrested Robert Diduca on child pornography production charges. He was convicted and subsequently sentenced in June 2012.
Forensic analysis of Diduca’s computer led investigators to the Netherlands, where a Dutch national was arrested and charged with production, distribution and possession of child pornography, as well as the sexual abuse of 87 minors.
Since then, authorities have netted a worldwide network of nearly 50 offenders and alleged offenders, including Mucha, stemming from what became known as Operation Holitna.
More than 150 children have been rescued as a result, the government said.
NOTE: HSI’s Operation Predator aims to identify, investigate and arrest those who sexually exploit children. As part of Operation Predator, HSI encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 1-866-347-2423 or its online tip form (http://www.cybertipline.com). Both are staffed around the clock by investigators.
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