12 arrests for kiddie porn inc child protection expert

(ANSA) - ROME, JAN 29 - Italian police on Wednesday made 12 arrests in a probe into child pornography including an expert in child protection.
    Twelve people were arrested, 14 cited and numerous computer devices seized containing tens of thousands of child pornography files, police said.
    They said it was a "complex operation to combat online child pornography by the police that involved 18 cities, conducted by investigators of the State Police of the Operational Center for Cyber ;;Security of Venice, coordinated by the local prosecutor's office and the National Center for the Countering of Online Child Pornography of the Postal Police Service." The arrests were carried out for possession of large amounts of child pornography material.
    The operation, codenamed "Viper 2", originated from a previous undercover activity of the COSC special unit of Venice that had already led last year to the execution of 60 searches and the arrest of 28 people belonging to large international communities of paedophiles.
    The provinces involved in the sweep were Lecce, Sassari, Siracusa, Massa, Pisa, Bergamo, Milan, Monza Brianza, Isernia, Caserta, Reggio Calabria, Rome, Alessandria, Cuneo, Novara, Venice, Vicenza and Treviso.
    The suspects in the operation against online paedophilia are all male, and are between 22 and 69 years old.
    Among them is a man who claimed to have contacts among experts in the field of online child protection.
    For the investigators, however, it was an alibi to accumulate child pornography material and remain in paedophile groups.
    The investigation was conducted undercover on a well-known messaging platform.
    Approximately 130 virtual groups were monitored, in which paedophile users from all over the world were present, exchanging thousands of photos and videos of child abuse.
    The foreign users present in the chats were reported by the CNCO to the States concerned, through the international police cooperation channels.
    For the execution of the 26 search warrants, issued by the Venice Prosecutor's Office, approximately 200 Postal Police officers in 18 Provinces were involved.
    The arrests took place in the provinces of Sassari (1), Syracuse (1), Pisa (2), Milan (3), Isernia (1), Rome (1), Alessandria (1), Venice (1) and Treviso (1). (ANSA).