| Suspects Arrested in Global Child Porn Raid |
|---|
The operation, codenamed "Baleno," is the result of a worldwide
investigation led by the Dutch National Police Agency, Europol said in
a statement.
The Dutch police provided initial intelligence to 76 countries related
to an Internet message board whose members' activities included
possession and distribution of child abuse material, the statement
said.
The network used sophisticated techniques to hide members' electronic
identities and to post encrypted content for a short period of time on
free Web services.
"Today's arrests and house searches are an important action against
those who either directly or indirectly are responsible for the sexual
exploitation of children," Europol Director Max-Peter Ratzel said in
the statement.
"The next step in the investigation will be to try to prove the link
between the illegal content and the active abuse."
Europol did not say how many people were arrested nor in which
countries.
Raids were carried out in Austria, Belgium, Estonia, France, Hungary,
Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and
Sweden, it said.
The investigation in the United States was led by the FBI.
In June last year, police in 13 European countries raided 150
locations in another child pornography crackdown, seizing computers,
videos and other material and made some arrests.
Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited.
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