Behind The Scenes With John Walsh: Operation Orange Tree

A few weeks ago, America's Most Wanted went deep into the Operation Orange Tree investigation, profiling the efforts of a mission that saw federal, state and local authorities targeting online predators.

AMW's John Walsh even joined Florida Governor Charlie Crist in a press conference announcing these joint efforts.

Authorities made nearly 80 arrests, bringing many dangerous child predators to justice. As John said, "It's kind of the culmination of almost 28 years of work; in a ten-day period, they took down 77 child predators."

Many of those arrested were sharing instructional materials for how to commit crimes against young children and not get caught.

"Some of the most disgusting stuff I've ever seen," John adds.

One of those predators busted, Pierre Domville, turned himself in after seeing himself on the show.

Florida's efforts in Operation Orange Tree, with collaboration at every level of law enforcement, can serve as a model to other states for what is possible.

Orange Tree involved state-of-the-art technology that allows authorities to track in real time.

"I'm using that as my nation-wide model, because a lot of what's done to children these days in the world of child pornography is done peer-to-peer," John said. "The software is revolutionary, but it's free any police agency that wants it."