Major operation to fight child pornography: 12 arrests, including in Sassari
The activity, called "Viper 2", led to 26 searches throughout Italy with 14 reportsSassari is also among the 18 provinces involved in the maxi operation "Viper 2" of the State Police, which in the last few hours has led to 12 arrests (one in the Sassari area) for possession of a large quantity of child pornography material, 14 reports and the seizure of several computer devices with tens of thousands of child pornography files. A complex activity, to combat online paedophilia, which has affected all of Italy and with a total of 26 searches.
Operation “Viper 2”, conducted by investigators of the State Police of the Operations Centre for Cyber Security of Venice, coordinated by the Public Prosecutor's Office of Venice and the National Centre for the Fight against Online Child Pornography (CNCPO) of the Postal Police Service, originated from a previous undercover activity of the COSC of Venice “Viper”, which last year had already led to the execution of 60 searches and the arrest of 28 people belonging to large international communities of paedophiles .
In addition to Sassari, the other provinces involved in the operation are Lecce, Syracuse (1 arrest), Massa, Pisa (2 arrests), Bergamo, Milan (3 arrests), Monza Brianza, Isernia (1 arrest), Caserta, Reggio Calabria, Rome (1 arrest and 1 person reported), Alessandria (1 arrest), Cuneo, Novara, Venice (1 arrest), Vicenza and Treviso (1 arrest) .
During the long and complex investigation, conducted undercover on a well-known messaging platform, approximately 130 virtual spaces were monitored, in which paedophile users from all over the world were present, exchanging thousands of photos and videos of abuse on minors, mostly at a young age . The foreign users present in the chats were reported by the CNCO to the interested states through the international police cooperation channels.
The suspects, all male, are between 22 and 69 years old . Among them there is also one who claimed to have acquaintances among experts in the field of online child protection: a circumstance exploited as an alibi, to accumulate child pornography material and remain in pedophile groups.
(Unioneonline/r.sp.)
