Associated Incidents
(Keystone-ATS) At least 25 individuals have been arrested in one of the first international operations of its kind, Europol announced on Friday. The main accused resides in Denmark.
Contacted by Keystone-ATS, the Federal Office of Police fedpol said that the Basel-Landschaft police, the Lucerne police and the Zurich municipal police each arrested an alleged buyer and remanded him in custody. The criminal proceedings are being conducted by the respective public prosecutors.
The majority of the arrests were made on Wednesday during a global operation led by the Danish police and in which law enforcement agencies from 18 other countries, including Switzerland, also participated.
The raid follows the arrest in November of the main suspect in the case, a Danish national who ran an online platform on which he distributed the AI-generated content he produced.
Growing volume
The main accused offered the prohibited child pornography content on popular social media platforms such as TikTok, YouTube, X and Discord. Buyers obtained access to hundreds of images of abused children by paying a single-digit sum each month, fedpol added.
“Online child sexual exploitation remains one of the most threatening manifestations of cybercrime in the European Union,” Europol stressed.
It “continues to be a top priority for law enforcement, which is faced with an ever-increasing volume of illegal content,” the agency added.