Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Shutterstock

Child pornography: 75 people arrested in Europe-wide crackdown

Operation Daylight was started after Europol received information from Swiss police last year revealing a vast network of criminals involved in the sexual exploitation of minors.

POLICE SWOOPED IN 28 European countries and arrested 75 suspects for sharing child sex images on the internet while investigating 207 cases across the continent, Europol said today.

Operation Daylight was started after Europol received information from Swiss police last year revealing a vast network of criminals involved in the sexual exploitation of minors, spokeswoman Claire Georges said.

“The investigation lasted for more than a year, based on the Swiss information which led to 611 ‘intelligence packages’ being sent to 26 EU member states,” she told AFP.

Norway and Switzerland also participated.

So-called intelligence packages have detailed information about suspects and could for instance include information such as computer IP addresses, Georges added

She confirmed that in many cases, perpetrators used the “Dark Web” and the Tor encryption system to mask their identities.

These paedophile networks “continue to be a primary source for persons with a sexual interest in children who are seeking child sexual abuse and exploitation material online,” Europol said in a statement from its headquarters in The Hague.

shutterstock_378245269 (1) Shutterstock / aPieceOfCake Shutterstock / aPieceOfCake / aPieceOfCake

‘All above suspicion’

Although no specific countries were mentioned, Italian police said in a separate statement that many of those arrested were unknown to law enforcement and had never before been outed.

“All above suspicion and many of them older than 50, they secretly contributed to this despicable network from the confines of the four walls of their homes, always paying maximum attention to source the latest material,” the statement added.

Georges told AFP that victims varied in age but that there was a worrying and growing trend of sexual abuse of babies under the age of 18 months.

She added the investigation was ongoing and that more arrests were expected.

Europol’s EC3 cybercrime centre head Steven Wilson said targeting those involved in child sexual abuse and exploitation material is a “key part” of Europol’s work.

We know that individuals are abusing online platforms and networks to distribute child sexual abuse material and are determined to target them and bring them to justice.

Europol, Europe’s policing agency, last year said criminals were increasingly selling live streams of child sex over legitimate chat sites and apps such as Skype in return for hard-to-trace virtual currencies like Bitcoin.

In one of the largest busts of its kind, a Europol-coordinated sweep in 2011 identified 670 suspects and 184 arrests were made.

- © AFP, 2016

Read: For the first time in years, more people are migrating into Ireland than leaving

Read: Rio court says there will be “no fast-tracking” of Pat Hickey’s case

Author
View 33 comments
Close
33 Comments
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute DN
    Favourite DN
    Report
    Jul 30th 2014, 7:27 PM

    I lived in Rotterdam for 11 months abd the Baja beach club used RFID chips for patrons and members. Keeps the trouble makers away. Only a matter of time before we’re implanted with these for everyday use like banking, social welfare etc.. George Orwell saw it coming a mile off :)

    48
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ryan Carroll
    Favourite Ryan Carroll
    Report
    Jul 30th 2014, 7:35 PM

    George Orwell saw no such thing. He saw a mass surveillance state, not RFID chips.

    Do you really think people will agree to having stuff plugged into their body when they can get the same thing with a plastic card in their wallet? come off the f__g stage with that tin foil hat bulls!t

    17
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute DN
    Favourite DN
    Report
    Jul 30th 2014, 8:02 PM

    B–lshit? Well people did and still do have these chip planted into their wrists. You ignorant fool! Look it up! My Orwell comment was aimed at the orwellian state which will happen someday hopefully not my lifetime. Tin foil is good for wrapping my samdwhiches. Not so good for hat making. C U Next Tuesday.

    35
    See 1 more reply ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Joseph Siddall
    Favourite Joseph Siddall
    Report
    Jul 31st 2014, 2:43 AM

    Thousands of pets are already microchipped to allow cross-border travel. Very simple procedure. Unlikely to get to the human population anytime soon, but it is surely a government’s wet dream to be able to track its citizens. The old “nothing to hide – nothing to fear” malarkey. Some day, perhaps.

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Glen
    Favourite Glen
    Report
    Jul 30th 2014, 6:34 PM

    How long before humans are chipped ?

    39
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute IrishGravyTrain
    Favourite IrishGravyTrain
    Report
    Jul 30th 2014, 6:46 PM

    Put tinfoil on your head and around your balls and you’ll be sorted.

    25
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Glen
    Favourite Glen
    Report
    Jul 30th 2014, 6:53 PM

    Oh stop with the tin foil BS
    It’s been extremely well documented that the powers that be want to use chips in people for ID, banking, buying and selling, medical history ect. Two company’s in California have been working on the technology for years they already use it in animals
    It’s only a matter of time before it’s used in humans.

    39
    See 10 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ablitive
    Favourite Ablitive
    Report
    Jul 30th 2014, 6:54 PM

    As soon as Benjamin Netanyahu and Barack Obama gives the go ahead…

    41
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ryan Carroll
    Favourite Ryan Carroll
    Report
    Jul 30th 2014, 7:09 PM

    It being on the Alex Jones show is not the same as ”being documented”, it’s been discussed as a conceptual thing not a serious proposal, and it would never fly as a mandatory thing anyway.
    We have Micheal Myers loose in the house slashing at us with his knife, and you are worried about the boogey man in your dreams.

    The EU is not coming for you, the Bilderbergers are not coming for you, it was not a cruize missile that hit the pentagon…the only big brother threat that’s real is the NSA and the 5 eyes system.
    Calm down.

    6
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Glen
    Favourite Glen
    Report
    Jul 30th 2014, 7:17 PM

    There are dozens of ” Alex jones types” who have written and lectured about this …. Google is your friend check out the company’s that manufacture them before making an ill-informed comments.

    23
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ryan Carroll
    Favourite Ryan Carroll
    Report
    Jul 30th 2014, 7:33 PM

    Glen Google is not research, Generation Y seems to fatally confuse the two.

    Research is finding facts and evidence, google will get you anything but. A google search can find you ‘evidence’ to confirm any crack pot theory you like. There are 1000s of internet pages explaining in painstaking deatail what explosives were put into the towers and how, why a cruize missile hit the pentagon, that JFK was killed because he signed an executive order about gold.

    You’re getting worried about a phantom threat that does not exist.

    8
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Niall H
    Favourite Niall H
    Report
    Jul 30th 2014, 7:35 PM

    It was not a airplane that hit the pentagon either

    21
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ryan Carroll
    Favourite Ryan Carroll
    Report
    Jul 30th 2014, 7:39 PM

    Oh dear…..

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ryan Carroll
    Favourite Ryan Carroll
    Report
    Jul 30th 2014, 8:05 PM

    The plane was seen by 100s of people with the naked eye as it clipped lights on it’s way across to hit the building.

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Niall H
    Favourite Niall H
    Report
    Jul 30th 2014, 8:32 PM

    I agree with most things you say on this site Ryan as you speak a lot of sense but I honestly think you need to open your eyes on this one.

    9
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ryan Carroll
    Favourite Ryan Carroll
    Report
    Jul 30th 2014, 8:39 PM

    Niall…people…saw…the plane…crashing …into …the building….I have a relative who personally saw the damn thing heading towards the building from their office.

    Just because it did not punch a cartoonish airplane shape into a reenforced concrete building resistant to attack (the physics of it folds the wings back into the fuselage and the fuselage is more liquid than solid when it’s crashing.

    It’s not about opening my eyes, I’m quite open, go on the appliances story, where the very same people up-ticking your conspiracy theory are down-ticking something that is factually indisputable, and you will see how open minded I am. But I’m a scientist, I believe in evidence forming a hypothesis and then further evidence leading to a logical conclusion.
    There is not a shred of evidence that anything other than a plane hit the Pentagon.
    All the red thumbs in the universe won’t change that.

    10
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Niall H
    Favourite Niall H
    Report
    Jul 31st 2014, 12:18 AM

    Well….then….maybe……I’ll……use….all….the…..full….stops….in….the….universe…

    9
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mark Oman
    Favourite Mark Oman
    Report
    Jul 30th 2014, 7:19 PM

    I like chips

    13
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paul Roche
    Favourite Paul Roche
    Report
    Jul 30th 2014, 10:33 PM

    It would appear that those who comment using “tinfoil hat” as a derogatory term for those who despair of the Big Brother effect on privacy really have no clue about how technology has made it easier for government to track citizens.

    10
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paul Carey
    Favourite Paul Carey
    Report
    Jul 30th 2014, 6:29 PM

    Nice to know they’re ‘ensureing’.

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Niall Ó Cionnaith
    Favourite Niall Ó Cionnaith
    Report
    Jul 30th 2014, 6:25 PM

    Very snazzy.

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Gerald Santucci
    Favourite Gerald Santucci
    Report
    Jul 30th 2014, 6:55 PM

    These 2 EN will inform and protect the European citizens while at the same time building trust in the technology, hence supporting market take-off (which is less significant in Europe compared to other world regions). A process of 8 years that involved ALL stakehoders.

    4
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.
JournalTv
News in 60 seconds