As the internet was becoming more mainstream, he found a new purpose in online child porn.

Sometime in 1997, police say, Cox put his knowledge about computers to work and became a ringleader in the international child pornography network known as the “Shadowz Brotherhood.”

Users who posted a certain number of images were promoted within the group and could gain access to even more images. He oversaw the network’s online bulletin board group known as “The Panty Raiders/Lolita Lovers” for years. He dubbed himself “The Wizard.”

Cox attracted the attention of law enforcement in November 2002, when he sent sexually explicit emails using the screen name “YoungStuff” to an undercover FBI agent he thought was a 14-year-old girl named “Brenda.”

Prosecutors said Cox sent “Brenda” money to travel from Virginia to Colorado so she could be his “sex slave.” He told the girl to wear a short skirt, red tube top and no underwear. When he met her, he said only, “You don’t look 14,” before police moved in to arrest him.

The moment marked the unraveling of an underground child porn network that authorities worldwide had been trying to bust for years. And Cox was one of its leaders, according to court documents.