500 arrests in child porn sweep = | WORLD | NEWS

Thu 17 Mar 15:53:19 = 2005=20

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500 arrests in child porn sweep




Related Articles=20 Police=20 swoop on child porn offendersChild=20 porn case prompts changes

Mar 17, 2005 =

More = than 500=20 people suspected of trading thousands of pornographic images and videos=20 featuring children over the Internet have been arrested in 12 countries = in=20 Europe and Latin America, Spanish police said.
   Nineteen arrests were made in Spain, with the remainder in = France,=20 Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands, Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Mexico, = the=20 Dominican Republic, Panama and Uruguay, said Spanish police who = coordinated the=20 operation.

"We are going = to continue=20 to carry out this kind of operation against child pornography in = determined=20 fashion as it is a disgrace which democratic, free and decent societies = cannot=20 tolerate," said Spanish Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso.
According to Spain's interior = ministry,=20 the police investigation began in the northwestern city of Pontevedra in = January=20 and turned up more than 20,000 items of child pornography accessed via = an=20 Internet chat room.

Police began=20 monitoring visitors to the chat room and within a fortnight had tracked = some 900=20 connections to the website concerned from around the globe.
Spain then liaised with = police forces of=20 the countries concerned before staging the raids.
  =20
"Several meetings were organised during the operation = involving=20 magistrates from all the countries concerned," a Spanish police = statement said.=20

The operation, one of the = largest of=20 its kind, was carried out in conjunction with the Eurojust and IberRed=20 law-enforcement agencies, it said.
   The Spanish arrests were nationwide, with several made in = Madrid and=20 other major cities including Barcelona and Valencia.
  =20
Few details were immediately available as to how many = people had=20 been detained in the other countries whose nationals were involved.
Swedish police spokesman = Linda Widmark=20 told AFP that "no one in Sweden has been arrested, but explained Swedish = criminal police participated in planning the bust.
  =20
"There were indications that some people here were = involved, but=20 it turned out that there was no longer reason to suspect them, and no = one was=20 arrested," she said, adding she was unaware if any Swedes had been = arrested=20 abroad.

The Dutch news = agency ANP=20 meanwhile quoted a Eurojust spokesman as saying the network was not = believed to=20 involve many Dutch nationals, noting it was mainly based on Latin = America and=20 Spain.

According to = Spanish police=20 the operation was not directly linked to previous swoops on paedophile = rings in=20 the country.

The interior = ministry=20 said one month ago that 18 suspected paedophiles had been arrested in = Spain amid=20 evidence they filmed their victims and swapped the images over the = Internet.
Spanish police smashed = another child=20 pornography ring in January, making nine arrests in seven cities.
In November, 90 people were = arrested=20 across Spain after they were caught in possession of thousands of = photographs=20 and DVDs depicting child pornography.