Police have smashed a Europe-wide internet child pornography ring, it emerged today.
Some 80 suspects were being investigated after police raids in the UK, Italy, France, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands.
DVDs, CD-Roms, video tapes, and memory cards for digital cameras were seized from what is thought to have been a vast network of paedophiles who downloaded the same pornographic images.
Suspects are believed to have tried to use sophisticated encryption techniques to hide their electronic identities. But police techniques made it possible to identify, across the whole of Europe, those who had downloaded the same series of images.
British police acted on information from Europol, the EU police force based in The Hague, which co-ordinated the operation codenamed "Icebreaker 2".
It followed a previous series of 150 linked raids in June in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, the Slovak Republic, Sweden and the UK.
That first stage of the operation led to 25 arrests in 13 European countries.
The latest phase of the crackdown was announced by Carabinieri paramilitary police in Rome.
A Europol spokesman said several arrests had been made in 80 raids this morning.
The operation began after police in Italy discovered paedophiles trading child porn images through message boards.
Police are trying to find the children abused in the images and at least one suspect is now under investigation for child sex abuse.
Europol Director Max-Peter Ratzel said: "It is important to show people who, directly or indirectly, are involved in sexual abuse depriving children of their childhood that they cannot stay anonymous behind a computer screen.
"The perpetrators have to realise that they cannot feel safe if they deal with child pornography".
AP