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Ideally, Barry Grissom would like to add four to five assistant federal prosecutors to his staff.

With more help, more could be done to tackle white collar crime and cases of sexual exploitation of children and women, Grissom, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Kansas, told a Salina audience Monday.

Efforts to convict criminals in federal court pay off. Last year, the U.S. Department of Justice, through the work of 93 U.S. Attorneys and their staffs, helped return $6.3 billion to the U.S. Treasury that was lost due to fraud. Some of those dollars came in the form of seized bank accounts, homes, yachts and other assets, Grissom said.

Grissom, who spoke Monday to the Salina Noon Rotary club, took over the Wichita office last year when he was appointed by President Barack Obama to succeed Eric Melgren. Melgren is now a federal judge.

Forty-nine assistant U.S. attorneys working in Kansas prosecute crimes ranging from narcotics trafficking to terrorism and hate crimes.

Most federal cases arising from the Salina area are prosecuted in Topeka, Grissom said.

Grissom addressed the work of federal authorities on drug cases, specifically showing a photo from the Salina Journal of Eric Srack being led, in handcuffs, by officers. Srack, owner of The Grind, 301 W. Ash, is facing charges in Saline County District Court.

The Grind and other Srack properties were searched in February as part of an ongoing federal investigation. No federal charges against Srack have been filed, Grissom said.

"I want to address that it is something that's on our radar screen," Grissom said. "We have received calls from Salina. And in the event any of those callers are here in this room, I want to let them know it's not falling on deaf ears."

No. 1? Fighting terrorism

Grissom also spoke about the No. 1 priority of federal prosecutors -- fighting terrorism. Americans can never forget Sept. 11, 2001, when terrorists brought down the World Trade Center towers in New York City.

Yet there was a 1993 attempt by a terrorist to bring down the World Trade Center with a bomb-loaded truck. That terrorist, Eyad Ismoil, a Jordanian citizen, came to the United States in 1989 to study engineering at Wichita State University, Grissom said.

"At that time, he wasn't even on our radar screen. Since 9-11, we're taking a much more aggressive posture about keeping track of folks who come into our country (through visas)," Grissom said.

Since 9-11, the Justice Department has prosecuted more than 400 cases involving terrorism and terrorism-related activities, and has gotten convictions in a majority of those cases, he said.

Child porn offenders

Grissom also noted convictions made in connection with Project Safe Childhood, including a Salinan, Nathan E. Boyce, 42. Computers seized from Boyd's home contained more than 50 movie files depicting children as young as 3 engaged in sexual activity.

The project's mission is to find and arrest online predators who sexually exploit children. Boyce, who went by the name "pervypedostrokin" when trading child pornography images in an Internet chat room, was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison.

It's not uncommon these days for porn traffickers to deal not only in still images but in high-definition video images, Grissom said.

Those accused of such crimes have limited options in trying to resolve their cases.

"They can plead to whatever we've indicted them on, or they can go to trial," Grissom said. "There is no plea bargain on this issue."

n Reporter David Clouston can be reached at 822-1403 or by email at dclouston@salina.com.

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