Anchorage Daily News

A University of Alaska Fairbanks police officer posing as a 13-year-old girl contacted a sexual predator on the Internet, then tracked him down using Google Earth, according to the Alaska Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

Arijit Dey, an Indian national in New York on a work visa, pleaded guilty there Tuesday to a count of attempting to distribute indecent materials to a minor, according to Anchorage police cyber crimes detective Sgt. Ron Tidler, commander of the task force.

The UAF officer, Marc Poeschel, came in contact with Dey on July 17 while he was surfing Internet chat rooms under the persona of a young girl, Tidler said. After their initial contact, Dey sent the officer a video of himself masturbating, he said. What Dey didn't realize -- besides the fact he was dealing with an undercover officer -- was that he had left his bathroom window curtains open while he filmed his scene.

Poeschel had a nice view of the New York skyline through the window and, by studying the city skyscape on Google Earth, he was able to identify the building in which the suspect had made the film, Tidler said.

"He was able to put it all together after doing a couple days of Internet homework," he said.

The officer contacted Tidler to get his help coordinating the case in New York. Tidler contacted law enforcement officials there; they were able to put a name to the face and pick Dey up from the location Poeschel had scoped out from across the country, he said.

"He was able to hand it to them on a platter," Tidler said.

Details of the plea agreement and Dey's sentence were not immediately available, nor was it clear if the conviction would affect his work visa.

Tidler said the case was a good example of how the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force is supposed to function, with numerous law enforcement agencies cooperating and sharing information to capture sex predators across state lines. The federally funded task force got its official start in Alaska last year.

Find James Halpin online at adn.com/contact/jhalpin or call him at 257-4589.

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