Police arrest 74 in Spanish raids on child porn network

SEVENTY-FOUR people are under arrest in Spain, and a further 61under investigation, after a series of raids uncovered a childpornography network.

The interior ministry spokesman confirmed that OperationRoulette, involving 600 police officers, is still under way, and hedid not discount further arrests.

He said Spanish police technological brigade officers wereworking through Interpol with police forces in several othercountries and with particular co-operation from the Brazilianpolice.

The raids were carried out over the past two weeks on 130 housesand offices across the country.

Technical experts have intercepted and analysed more than 2,500internet connections and identified 180 internet users who arealleged to have been downloading, sharing or possessing pornographicmaterial featuring children and adolescents.

One of those under arrest is a 40-year-old musician believed tobe responsible for filming, producing and circulating much of thepornographic material. After searching his apartment policeconfiscated six external hard discs, four memory sticks and a videocamera containing two films - one of which showed the man, naked,with his 13-year-old niece and the other a nude adolescent boy,believed to be the son of his neighbours. Although they wereapparently complete, neither of these two video films had beenbroadcast over the internet.

In total 323 hard discs, 20 CPUs, 31 laptop computers, seven VHSvideo cassettes, three digital cameras, a mobile phone and manyother items of importance were seized in the raids and are beingheld for study.

Police commissioner Manuel Vazquez confirmed that not all thefilms had been produced in Spain. He said that several of them hadalready been widely circulated, particularly those containing "ayoung European girl" who was identified some time ago.

It was thought that most had already been deleted.

He said the detainees came from all walks of life and fromvirtually every Spanish province. They include teachers, engineers,IT technicians, bank workers, security officers, students and theunemployed.

He said that all those under arrest had downloaded at least 10paedophile videos, thus discounting the possibility they could havebeen downloaded inadvertently.

"Some of the images on the films are extraordinarily unpleasantand strong, particularly those of very young children sufferingsexual abuse.

"The youngest victim is a five-year-old girl and there are alsomany close-ups of children of six, seven or eight," said one of theofficers leading the operation.

The Spanish technological investigation brigade (BIT) isparticularly active in the fight against child pornography andpaedophilia over the web.

A year ago 121 people were arrested in a similar widespreadcrackdown with the co-operation of police forces across Europe.

The work of BIT has been widely praised. More than 1,500 arrestsfor spreading child pornography have been made over the past sixyears, and UN children's organisation UNICEF presented it with aspecial award in 2008.