The National Police have carried out a massive operation targeting the possession, production, and distribution of child sexual exploitation material. This operation has resulted in the arrest of 61 people, two of them in the province of Alicante, and the indictment of 17 others. More than 200 officers participated in the operation, and more than 100 house searches were carried out, resulting in the seizure of 1,987 electronic devices whose contents are currently being analysed.
The complexity of the investigation stems from the large number of people investigated and searches conducted, the numerous judicial authorities involved, and the thousands of files seized, according to the police.
Among those arrested are a computer engineer from Castellón, a former professional soldier from Coslada—who was found with nine firearms and a large amount of ammunition—and a secondary school teacher from Las Palmas who also had children in foster care.
The investigation, which began operations in early June, was coordinated by the Central Cybercrime Unit in conjunction with the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Computer Crime.
Officers carried out more than 100 searches in most provinces across Spain and seized a large number of electronic devices, including 37 cell phones, 63 computers (desktop and laptop), 229 hard drives, 58 USB flash drives, and more than 1,600 different storage devices. They also investigated 110 people for possession, production, and distribution of child pornography, resulting in 61 arrests and 17 who were investigated but not arrested.
The arrests have been made in the provinces of Biscay (2), Guipúzcoa (1), Segovia (1), Ávila (1), Soria (1), Zamora (1), Burgos (2), León (1), Valladolid (2), Salamanca (1), Alicante (2), Castellón (2), Navarra (1), Lleida (1), Girona (2), Balearic Islands (1), Melilla (2), La Rioja (1), Cantabria (2), Cáceres (1), Las Palmas (2), Santa Cruz de Tenerife (2), Zaragoza (3), Huesca (2), Asturias (2), Madrid (4), Guadalajara (2), Albacete (1), Ciudad Real (1), Toledo (3), Ourense (1), Lugo (1), A Coruña (2), Seville (2), Malaga (1), Granada (1), Cadiz (2) and Almeria (1).
Among those arrested was an individual who was using a restaurant’s public Wi-Fi connection. Officers were able to identify and locate him in Ourense after observing a pattern of downloads during certain time slots, which allowed them to detect a real-time connection and the person using a laptop to make the connections under investigation.
Another of the defendants, arrested in Castellón, is a computer engineer with advanced technical knowledge and skills. This led him to install a cable to share the internet connection, from which he downloaded and distributed child sexual exploitation material with his brother (who lived on the upper floor and owned the line).
On the other hand, the man arrested in the Madrid municipality of Coslada is a former soldier who adopted security measures and eliminated downloaded illicit material. However, based on the analysis of the devices seized, officers confirmed that he downloaded and distributed files depicting child sexual exploitation. Nine firearms (long, short, and combat) and a significant quantity of ammunition were also discovered during a search of his house.
Finally, among those arrested was a secondary school teacher who also had children in foster care. This individual took advantage of any activity to film the children engaging in sexual behaviour or being naked and was eventually arrested in Las Palmas.
Citizen collaboration
The Police have set up the email address denuncias.pornografia.infantil@policia.es so that any citizen with information about the distribution, possession, or storage of child pornography can report it completely anonymously and confidentially. We also remind everyone of the importance of not sharing or storing these types of images of minors, as this would constitute a crime.
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