Welcome
Pursue
justice
More than 200,000 files were discovered during the investigation. Several suspects have been taken into custody and further arrests are planned.
Published on November 28, 2023 06:32
Reading time: 1 min
At the headquarters of the national gendarmerie in Issy-les-Moulineaux (Hauts-de-Seine), in October 2018. (ARTHUR NICHOLAS ORCHARD / HANS LUCAS / AFP)
Thirty-one men suspected of managing and using child pornography content via the encrypted messaging service Signal were arrested in mid-November in a large-scale raid across France and Europe, the gendarmerie said on Monday (November 27). In total, more than 200,000 files were discovered, 40 child crime groups were checked and 49 digital materials were seized.
The starting point of the operation was a complaint from the American Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) for “possession of child pornography” against a thirty-year-old living in Marmande (Lot-et-Garonne). On sight last February, the gendarmerie clarified and confirmed information from the newspaper Sud Ouest.
Arrests across Europe
The use of digital media initiated by the Cybergendames of the Bordeaux Research Section then allowed the identification of seven discussion groups, eight administrators and three secure storage rooms. “An investigation carried out by gendarmes under a pseudonym then makes it possible to identify all those involved: administrators, suppliers, users …,” describes Colonel Pascal Péresse, head of the operations department of the Center to Combat Digital Crime (C3N).
By looking at particularly harsh images, about “700 people of 73 different nationalities” are identified by more than 70 investigators, including 25 specializing in new technologies, at the Cergy-Pontoise center and in local branches in Bordeaux, Lille and Versailles or Metz from Europol and Interpol. Between November 13th and 17th, “10 suspects were arrested in Spain, 5 in Hungary, 4 in Belgium and 2 in Bulgaria, i.e. 21 arrests within the European Union and 10 in France.”
“New arrests are also planned soon in Finland, Romania and Ukraine,” explains Colonel Péresse. Several suspects were taken into custody. Some are also prosecuted for rape of a minor under 15 and corruption of minors. Those arrested with different profiles include a former teacher from Mayotte, a Hungarian pediatrician, a radio presenter and tourists who traveled to Thailand.