Burlington man arrested in online child porn ring

Authorities say the online child porn ring was among the most sophisticated ever.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI has arrested 12 Americans — one of them from North Carolina — in a global child pornography ring that distributed more than 400,000 lewd pictures and movies.

An indictment says Ronald White of Burlington was known as “RoadKill” in the porn ring and posted a text in the newsgroup in response to another member’s posting of child porn images. Details about the message, which was posted on or around Jan. 2, 2007, weren’t included in the indictment.

A phone message left for a Ronald White in Burlington wasn’t immediately returned Tuesday night; two other phone numbers listed under the same name had been disconnected.

The indictment unsealed last week in federal court in Pensacola, Fla. said some of the victims were as young as 5 years old. Others were preyed upon for innocent characteristics such as wearing their hair in pigtails.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)