Europol Sting Busts 112 Child Pornographers, More To Follow
Europol agents this week infiltrated a massive child pornography ring and arrested 112 people in 22 countries. During their raids agents went after the worst of the child pornography collects, specifically those with “the most extreme forms of video material” which the Associated Press says included pictures and videos of toddlers and babies being raped.
Agents have revealed that internet chat channels they uncovered have led to 269 suspects, agents are currently arresting the criminals based on the severity of their crimes.
Europol director Rob Wainwright said the operation was a complete success but noted that child porn traders are making it more difficult to track them down because of better technology that allows for identity protection when sharing images and videos.
Codenamed Operation Icarus was led under the leadership of Danish internet security experts because of their expertise in dealing with peer-to-peer networks.
The age of the men range from 24 to 55 years old and all of them are being held in Denmark on preliminary charges. The men were arrested in the following countries:
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Croatia, Norway and Switzerland.
In the meantime investigators do not have their work cut out for them, in one case they will need to sift through 120 terabyte of high definition video from just one arrested party.
[Image via ShutterStock.com]
