Police arrest 10 for possession and distribution of pedophilia files

The Spanish National Police arrested ten people suspected of possession and online distribution of pedophile materials described by the Ministry of the Interior as "extremely harsh" in a press release.

During the operation, twelve house searches have been carried out throughout the Spanish geography, in which electronic devices that stored more than 30,000 files of pornographic content featuring minors, some of them very young, have been intervened, say the Spanish authorities.

According to police information, the investigation began in 2019. In July of that year the first arrests were carried out, but the complexity of the investigation forced it to be extended until February 2022, when the last detention was carried out.

In total, 10 people have been arrested in the provinces of Alicante, Barcelona, ​​Cádiz, Castellón, Guipúzcoa, Madrid, Málaga and Soria.

Among those arrested is a 48-year-old man, who lived with his parents at his family home in the province of Barcelona. He was arrested just as he was downloading and sharing child sexual exploitation files with other users.

More than 20,000 files of that material were seized, "perfectly organized, classified and stored in numerous computer equipment," say the Spanish police.

Seized equipment

In the province of Castellón, a 53-year-old man was arrested who, from the beginning of the investigation until its closure in February 2022, had downloaded and distributed thousands of files of child sexual exploitation through P2P networks.

Throughout the operation, the police officers have seized 7 computers, 4 mobile phones, 22 hard drives, a tablet, seven memory cards, 25 pen drives, 12 DVD/CD-ROMs, an extender and three WiFi receiving antennas, as well as diverse written documentation.