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coca-cola
 |  | Exploration Sting?
< on 6/19/2007 5:14 AM >
|  | | | Ninety-one abandoned buildings which were repeatedly photographed for an internet forum have been demoed in FL and abroad following the biggest international investigation so far into an online exploration ring.
Officers from Florida’s Internet Exploitation and Online Protection Centre worked for 10 months with detectives from 35 other countries to identify and demolish the empty structures, which were being exploited and photographed for the thousands of members of the forum. More than 50 of the buildings were found in Florida and handed over to the care of the Department Of The Interior.
The international inquiry, in which specialist detectives with experience in counter-terrorism posed as seasoned explorers online, led yesterday to the jailing of Ilian Caine, the Florida "godfather" of the exploration ring.
Ilian Caine, 32, who lived at his guarded estate in Orlando, Florida, used the pseudonym Nomeus to run the forum FLURBEX, a forum on which thrill seekers shared live images of the documentation of these derelict locations.
Caine, who ran the operation from an array of networked computers in his guest house, was given an indeterminate jail sentence at Orange County court yesterday after admitting nine offences relating to the possession and distribution of incriminating images of architecture. Judge Peter Thompson said Caine would stay in prison until experts decided it was safe to release him.
A second Florida mastermind, Gordon McIntosh, 23, was also identified and arrested at his home in Jacksonville, Florida, during the investigation. McIntosh, who took over the running of the forum after Caine’s arrest in March, will be sentenced on June 29 after pleading guilty to 27 charges of making, possessing and distributing incriminating images and films. Police said among 392 questionable film files in McIntosh's possession were videos of abandonments being “explored”.
More than 700 forum members, including 200 in Florida, are still being investigated. Among those already in prison are a 39-year-old from Miami, Florida, who was jailed for a minimum of seven years last week after admitting incriminating photography, and Graham Conridge, 27, a music teacher from Lake Wales who posed online as a teenage boy to persuade the forum administrators to give him full access. He passed away this past March.
Jim Gamble, the chief executive of the online protection centre, said yesterday explorers had earned their place in the forum by proving they could procure and circulate images of serious explorations.
"From the apparent safety of his fortified guest house, Caine spent hours each day planning, promoting and encouraging the exploration of forgotten, abandoned buildings," Mr. Gamble said. "He provided a service to hundreds of like-minded individuals."
Caine lived in the same neighborhood as his father David, an accountant, mother Mavis and sister Louise. The family owned and operated a microbrewery in the area.
A single man with no children, he was a member in 2006 of an online urban exploration forum known as UER, which is run by a Canadian, who calls himself Avatar X. After having issues with the UER community in November 2006, Caine made himself the host of a new forum, temporarily breaking ties with UER by calling his site FLURBEX.
But in December last year, officers from Toronto police identified a Floridian as the new forum host and tipped off Floridian investigators, who began an undercover operation with colleagues from Canada, America and Australia. They identified Caine and moved to arrest him at his home in March this year while he was online. As he was led away officers assumed his identity in the forum, posting a message on the site saying: "we are having a large meet" to avoid arousing suspicions.
Over 10 days, officers posed as Caine to gather evidence on the thousands of members of the information swapping website. Detectives found 75,960 dark and decrepit images on the computer in Caine's bunker and evidence that he had supplied 11,491 images to other forum members.
Detective Sergeant Carl Fisher, of Orlando police, said: "He showed no remorse when he was arrested. Our officers spent three months viewing the images and categorizing them and they were the worst things we have ever seen."
The sting
When officers sat at Ilian Caine's computer and began communicating with members of his forum, they discovered 70 men were queuing to view a live video feed of an actual explore which was being broadcasted at the time.
Only minutes earlier, Caine had been led away in handcuffs and the detectives were assuming his online identity - Nomeus - to gather evidence on the forum members.
Without circulating or procuring any images of abandonments themselves, the officers spent 10 days "chatting" with hundreds of explorers from across the world. They encouraged members to talk about the plans they were carrying out, the images they were procuring and circulating and what other “runs” they had planned. As each man communicated in the forum his details were copied and sent to specialist online code breakers for him to be identified.
Prospective members gained entry to the forum by impressing Caine and his lieutenants with the images they were able to procure.
Unlike many urban exploration rings online, the adventure was carried out in real time and placed live online. It was the knowledge that so many empty buildings and industrial locations were at risk that prompted officers to move quickly.
[last edit 6/19/2007 5:25 AM by coca-cola - edited 1 times]
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micro
    
Gender: Male
Slowly I turned
| | Re: Exploration Sting?
<Reply # 1 on 6/19/2007 5:39 AM >
| | | | Classic.
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maypost
   
location:
North, South, East, West, all around... then down to the underground
Gender: Male
Exploring if for n00bz0rz
| | Re: Exploration Sting?
<Reply # 2 on 6/19/2007 7:14 AM >
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nine offences relating to the possession and distribution of incriminating images of architecture.
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Too funny, they make it seem like he was dealing drugs or something. Everyone knows that exploring is way worse than harmless drug dealing.
Exploring is like tattoos... They stopped being cool in 2005
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MutantMandias
Perverse and Often Baffling
location:
Atlanta, GA
Gender: Male
Are you a reporter? Contact me for a UE interview! Also not averse to the the idea of group/anal.
| |  | Re: Exploration Sting?
<Reply # 3 on 6/19/2007 2:38 PM >
| | | | Well, that explains it.
Last week "Nomeus" IM'd me and asked about exploring some things. I, of course, wanted to talk about our sex slave business, and why he hasn't payed for the last three white women I had sent to him. He just kept trying to turn the conversation back to abandoned buildings, as if the whole FLURBEX thing wasn't just his cover operation for his sex slave/drug/beanie baby/assassination work.
mutantMandias may cause dizziness, sexual nightmares, and sleep crime. ++++ mutantMandias has to return some videotapes ++++ Do not taunt mutantMandias
mutantMandias is something more than human, more than a computer. mutantMandias is a murderously intelligent, sensually self-programmed, non-being |
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SaraBellum
Berkshire Hunt
location:
Villa Villekulla
Gender: Female
Coming to a cinema near you this summer.
| |  | Re: Exploration Sting?
<Reply # 4 on 6/19/2007 2:49 PM >
| | | | Fantastic.
[01:47:56] <GreyDeath> Sara just stares her enemies into submission and eventually madness
"You can either be wise or a bad-ass gangsta, but not both. You must choose your path." ~~metawaffle |
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LizBellum
Gender: Female
Be really excellent at everything!
| | | Re: Exploration Sting?
<Reply # 5 on 6/19/2007 2:56 PM >
| | | | Those buildings were asking to be explored.
flickrgrrrrl :: boyfuckingracer |
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yokes
location:
Toronto
Gender: Male
I aim to misbehave
| | | | Re: Exploration Sting?
<Reply # 6 on 6/19/2007 2:56 PM >
| | | | So, who will be the first to explore his bunker?
"Great architecture has only two natural enemies: water and stupid men." - Richard Nickel |
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DevilC
location:
Washington, District of Corruption
Gender: Male
I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their views.
| | | Re: Exploration Sting?
<Reply # 7 on 6/19/2007 2:58 PM >
| | | | Upon whom can I turn State's witness?
I want to sing like a canary just to save my own hide.
Science flies you to the Moon. Religion flies you into tall buildings. |
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SaraBellum
Berkshire Hunt
location:
Villa Villekulla
Gender: Female
Coming to a cinema near you this summer.
| | | Re: Exploration Sting?
<Reply # 8 on 6/19/2007 3:02 PM >
| | | | Posted by LizBellum
Those buildings were asking to be explored.
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No doubt. Did you see those broken windows?
[01:47:56] <GreyDeath> Sara just stares her enemies into submission and eventually madness
"You can either be wise or a bad-ass gangsta, but not both. You must choose your path." ~~metawaffle |
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MutantMandias
Perverse and Often Baffling
location:
Atlanta, GA
Gender: Male
Are you a reporter? Contact me for a UE interview! Also not averse to the the idea of group/anal.
| | | Re: Exploration Sting?
<Reply # 9 on 6/19/2007 3:18 PM >
| | | | Hey! I'm innocent! Those buildings explored ME!
mutantMandias may cause dizziness, sexual nightmares, and sleep crime. ++++ mutantMandias has to return some videotapes ++++ Do not taunt mutantMandias
mutantMandias is something more than human, more than a computer. mutantMandias is a murderously intelligent, sensually self-programmed, non-being |
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yokes
location:
Toronto
Gender: Male
I aim to misbehave
| | | | Re: Exploration Sting?
<Reply # 10 on 6/19/2007 3:23 PM >
| | | | I only explore buildings that have been around for at least 18 years. Anything younger holds no appeal for me.
"Great architecture has only two natural enemies: water and stupid men." - Richard Nickel |
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MHInc
This member has been banned. See the banlist for more information.
location:
Niagara Falls, Ontario Canada
Gender: Male
| | | Re: Exploration Sting?
<Reply # 11 on 6/19/2007 3:31 PM >
| | | | Exploiting buildings with photography? Those poor poor abandoned buildings! I feel so bad for them! How they must feel to be photographed and exploited on the internet for all of those forum members to see!
YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME! They make these guys out to be a child porn ring or something, that is NUTS! Maybe being Florida, ya know the nick name "The Gun Shot State" those investigators should spend 10 months putting the drug dealers away. I can't believe the government would fund something like that crap!
MH Inc. Photography Canada
http://www.mhinccanada.com
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coca-cola
| | Re: Exploration Sting?
<Reply # 12 on 6/19/2007 4:16 PM >
| | | | lol
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SaraBellum
Berkshire Hunt
location:
Villa Villekulla
Gender: Female
Coming to a cinema near you this summer.
| | | Re: Exploration Sting?
<Reply # 13 on 6/19/2007 4:20 PM >
| | | | I wondered how long it would take for someone to take that seriously.
[01:47:56] <GreyDeath> Sara just stares her enemies into submission and eventually madness
"You can either be wise or a bad-ass gangsta, but not both. You must choose your path." ~~metawaffle |
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micro
Gender: Male
Slowly I turned
| | Re: Exploration Sting?
<Reply # 14 on 6/19/2007 4:24 PM >
| | | | I heard the worst offences involved selective colouring.
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maypost
location:
North, South, East, West, all around... then down to the underground
Gender: Male
Exploring if for n00bz0rz
| | Re: Exploration Sting?
<Reply # 15 on 6/19/2007 4:42 PM >
| | | | Posted by micro
I heard the worst offences involved selective colouring.
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Nope...
HDR
Exploring is like tattoos... They stopped being cool in 2005
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nomeus
This member has been banned. See the banlist for more information.
location:
FLA
Gender: Male
www.FLURBEX.com
| |  | | | Re: Exploration Sting?
<Reply # 16 on 6/19/2007 4:57 PM >
| | | | Posted by SaraBellum
I wondered how long it would take for someone to take that seriously.
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good times
www.terraincognito.com
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Viavinci
Gender: Female
Dammit Jim, I'm an explorer not a photographer!
| | | Re: Exploration Sting?
<Reply # 17 on 6/19/2007 6:11 PM >
| | | | Posted by MutantMandias
He just kept trying to turn the conversation back to abandoned buildings, as if the whole FLURBEX thing wasn't just his cover operation for his sex slave/drug/beanie baby/assassination work.
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hey, thats my corner of the market! Im the only sex slave/drug/beanie baby/assassination ring king pin around these parts!
I'm overly dramatic online AND I only explore for validation. I'm a double threat. |
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MutantMandias
Perverse and Often Baffling
location:
Atlanta, GA
Gender: Male
Are you a reporter? Contact me for a UE interview! Also not averse to the the idea of group/anal.
| | | Re: Exploration Sting?
<Reply # 18 on 6/19/2007 6:18 PM >
| | | | Viavinci... Viavinci is... the Duke of... S(ue)... She's... A-Number-One.
mutantMandias may cause dizziness, sexual nightmares, and sleep crime. ++++ mutantMandias has to return some videotapes ++++ Do not taunt mutantMandias
mutantMandias is something more than human, more than a computer. mutantMandias is a murderously intelligent, sensually self-programmed, non-being |
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nomeus
This member has been banned. See the banlist for more information.
location:
FLA
Gender: Male
www.FLURBEX.com
| | | | | Re: Exploration Sting?
<Reply # 19 on 6/19/2007 8:22 PM >
| | | | Posted by Viavinci
hey, thats my corner of the market! Im the only sex slave/drug/beanie baby/assassination ring king pin around these parts!
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you will speak when spoken to now sit down and shut up
www.terraincognito.com
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