Child porn sweep nets 121
2008-10-01 12:04
Madrid - Spanish police said on Wednesday they had arrested 121 people in nationwide raids as part of the biggest operation against internet child pornography ever carried out in the country.
Apart from the arrests, 96 others were accused of "possession and distribution of internet child pornography", a police statement said, adding that more than 800 police officials took part in the raid.
Police conducted 210 searches that "seized millions of archives of videos and photographs some of which show extremely harsh abuse of minors", police said.
Two of the people arrested produced their own pornographic material and the victims included members of their own families.
The anti-paedophilia investigation included the co-operation of the Brazilian police which helped to uncover a network for exchanging material with major connections in some 75 countries.
Police said they have identified 250 residences throughout Spain
where the pornographic files were uploaded and then distributed, and 347 computer hard drives, 1 186 CDs and DVDs and 36 laptops were seized.
Spain has been cracking down on paedophilia in the past few years, arresting nearly 100 people in operations in April and June this year.
Investigators have been helped by a software programme which enables them to detect and gather the names and addresses of Internet users who connect to the pornographic sites.