Italian police on Wednesday made 12
arrests in a probe into child pornography including an expert in
child protection.
Twelve people were arrested, 14 cited and numerous computer
devices seized containing tens of thousands of child pornography
files, police said.
They said it was a "complex operation to combat online child
pornography by the police that involved 18 cities, conducted by
investigators of the State Police of the Operational Center for
Cyber ;;Security of Venice, coordinated by the local
prosecutor's office and the National Center for the Countering
of Online Child Pornography of the Postal Police Service."
The arrests were carried out for possession of large amounts of
child pornography material.
The operation, codenamed "Viper 2", originated from a previous
undercover activity of the COSC special unit of Venice that had
already led last year to the execution of 60 searches and the
arrest of 28 people belonging to large international communities
of paedophiles.
The provinces involved in the sweep were Lecce, Sassari,
Siracusa, Massa, Pisa, Bergamo, Milan, Monza Brianza, Isernia,
Caserta, Reggio Calabria, Rome, Alessandria, Cuneo, Novara,
Venice, Vicenza and Treviso.
The suspects in the operation against online paedophilia are all
male, and are between 22 and 69 years old.
Among them is a man who claimed to have contacts among experts
in the field of online child protection.
For the investigators, however, it was an alibi to accumulate
child pornography material and remain in paedophile groups.
The investigation was conducted undercover on a well-known
messaging platform.
Approximately 130 virtual groups were monitored, in which
paedophile users from all over the world were present,
exchanging thousands of photos and videos of child abuse.
The foreign users present in the chats were reported by the CNCO
to the States concerned, through the international police
cooperation channels.
For the execution of the 26 search warrants, issued by the
Venice Prosecutor's Office, approximately 200 Postal Police
officers in 18 Provinces were involved.
The arrests took place in the provinces of Sassari (1), Syracuse
(1), Pisa (2), Milan (3), Isernia (1), Rome (1), Alessandria
(1), Venice (1) and Treviso (1).
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