79 people suspected of both producing and distributing child pornography online have been detained by Spanish police.
Saturday, police say they arrested 78 men and one woman during the operation, which first began in November 2016.
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According to the New York Times, police agents confiscated 45 laptops, 113 hard drives, 25 mobile phones, 38 USB drives and more than 300 DVDs containing “extremely graphic” pornographic content that involved minors while raiding 80 separate properties across Spain. In addition, police also found smoke bombs, knives, one hand gun, 97 wraps of hashish, 120 grams of MDMA, and 100 grams of designer drugs while they raided one single property in Madrid.
One man, 27-years-old and living in Madrid, used his job where he worked closely with small children to produce pornographic images that he then distributed to pedophiles. Over 2,000 images of minors were discovered when police searched the man’s home.
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During a press conference, the Police explained that one 57-year-old detainee was arrested for “continued sexual aggression against a three-year-old child as well as producing pornographic images involving children from 2010-2013. According to police, the same man was involved with a Peruvian woman who had been producing pornographic images of her 11-year-old daughter and her four-year-old niece and then sending it to his location in Spain. Money transfers between the man and woman coincided with the production of the images, according to law enforcement.
Police also announced during the press conference that they have already sent all of the information they learned during the investigation to the Division for the Investigation of High Technology Crimes in Peru, so the investigation could be continued.
This is one of Spain’s largest operations against child pornography to date.
It’s not immediately clear how many people were charged or remain in custody.
