SPAIN:ONE OF the largest child pornography rings in Spain has been broken up with the arrest of 121 suspects. They are being charged with the possession and distribution of sexual images of children over the internet, writes Jane Walkerin Madrid.
Police say they have uncovered millions of graphic images on videos and still photographs, some showing "extremely violent acts against children". Disks containing millions of video and photo files were shared by a network that distributed them in 75 countries.
Police began their investigations in July 2007 following a tip-off from Brazilian police. Using the code-name Carousel, the operation was headed by the Spanish police Technical Investigation Brigade (BIT) working in co-operation with 800 National Police Civil Guards in Spain and overseas through Interpol.
The arrests began in Mallorca on September 23rd and then spread across the country.
The list of suspects covers all sectors of society, and includes airline pilots, teachers, bank employees, taxi drivers and many others, and their ages range from minors to senior citizens.
Two of those arrested had produced and distributed horrific images of members of their own families, some of whom can be clearly identified.
BIT logged on to more than 18,000 connections showing pornographic and paedophile images from servers in 75 countries.
They uncovered three websites distributing images of what police call pre-teen hard core, and identified 250 users who had unloaded these images.
In their raids police seized 347 hard disks, 2,000 DVDs, 36 laptop computers and two digital cameras.
The Spanish interior ministry is worried by the dramatic increase in internet pornography in Spain, particularly involving children.
In 2003 police made 52 arrests, in 2006 they arrested 238 people, and between January and July this year, before this week's arrests, 244 people were detained and a further 398 were accused of "grooming" children for sex.
At the same time an Interpol report says that half of all internet crime involves the production, distribution and sale of child pornography.
Last year Spain was shocked by the "Nannygate" case when a 26- year-old male babysitter in an affluent suburb of Madrid was arrested for abusing and filming his sexual acts on five of his charges, all aged under two.
In July this year he was sentenced to 58 years in jail for 11 sexual offences and, under a new law passed recently, he will have to serve his full sentence.