I wonder in the Paedophile Squad is Britain's answer to the P.E.T. Projects, which were fielded as a joint operation of the United States, Austria, and Germany.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/07/03/npaed03.xml&sShe\
et=/news/2002/07/03/ixhome.html
By Sean O'Neill
(Filed: 03/07/2002)
British investigators flew to America to rescue a six-year-old girl who was
being repeatedly raped on video by her father for the gratification of
members of a highly secretive internet paedophile ring.
Officers from the national high-tech crime unit discovered the girl's
ordeal - video footage of which was placed on an encrypted website - after
the seizure of a computer in Bradford, West Yorks.
Two officers flew to the US and, with FBI agents, local police and a child
protection team, raided a house in Georgia. The girl, an only child, was at
home with her married parents.
--snip--
The rescue was ordered despite the danger that it could have jeopardised an
inquiry into the Shadowz Brotherhood, a major internet paedophile gang.
Details of the investigation were given yesterday after raids across Europe
in which 30 members of the ring were arrested. Forty-six men have been
detained in 12 countries since the inquiry began.
There have been 10 arrests in Britain, including six yesterday, the most
important of which was that of a man whose computer led officers to the girl.
At the time of a raid on his house last December, the 29-year-old man was
downloading child pornography. While officers were still at the house he
received a delivery from Romania of 25 CD-Roms containing child pornography.
During examination of one hard drive, a video clip of the child being raped
was found. It was traced to an email address in Georgia used by a man
nicknamed "Dead".
The man is believed to have been an "administrator" in the Shadowz
Brotherhood, a club thought to number 70 to 100 people.
A few "administrators" rated other members at one to four stars. The
ratings allowed different levels of access to websites.
The brotherhood prided itself on its security. Members were advised how to
re-route messages through different internet servers and how to remove all
traces of their identity.
But since early 2001, when Swedish intelligence located the club, officers
from the high-tech unit have been monitoring it closely.
Hundreds of thousands of still images and video clips have been found, some
depicting the torture of children and sexual abuse of babies.
More than 60
internet companies have been told to remove material from 244 websites.
"The material is extremely horrific abuse of children," said Det Supt Mick
Deats, head of operations at the high-tech unit.
"Just when you think you have seen the worst, something else comes along.
It is a real shock to the system."
One of those held yesterday, a 25-year-old unemployed man from Staines,
Middx, is believed to be one of the group's leaders.
The others are: an electronics security expert, 58, from Northants; a
62-year-old employee of a NHS trust from Reading, a cleaner, 23, from
Wiltshire; an electrician, 26, from Eltham, south-east London; and a
27-year-old jewellery trade manager from Hounslow, west London.
----------
: European Police Smash Internet Child Porn Network
: Tue Jul 2,12:57 PM ET
: THE HAGUE (Reuters) - European police swooped on a
: suspected Internet child pornography ring with raids in seven
: countries on Tuesday, the European Union's police agency
: Europol said.
: Police seized suspects, computers, CDs and videos in raids
: in Belgium, Britain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain
: and
: Sweden.
: British police said "Operation Twins" targeted
: suspected
: members of the world's most technically-sophisticated Internet
: child porn network yet detected. They used complex technology
: to try to avoid detection.
: The gang's alleged activities included the production and
: distribution of child pornography and abuse of children. Abuse
: was filmed and broadcast in "real time" over the
: Internet,
: police said.
: =[snip]===[full article linked below]=====
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