500 arrests in Spanish child porn crackdown
Spanish police say 500 people were arrested in 12 countries as part of a international crackdown on child pornography.
Spain said it arrested 19 people as part of the operation. The child porn ring is said to have used the internet to distribute videos, photos and other material.
Police said more than 500 suspects were targeted for arrest in 12 countries in Europe and Latin America.
The paedophilia ring distributed more than 20,000 videos, photos and MP3 audio files through a Spanish-language Internet chat room, according to a statement from the Civil Guard, a paramilitary police force that is part of the Interior Ministry.
The probe was coordinated by Eurojust, a European law enforcement body, and Ibered, a similar agency operating in Latin America.
The investigation was prompted by a complaint filed on January 19 by a Spaniard in the northwest Galicia region who reported seeing graphic pornography involving very young children in a chat room.
Police started monitoring the chat room to determine who offered material for it and in just 15 days identified more than 900 addresses from which people logged onto the site.
Police in 12 countries are to make arrests in the case, the Spanish police statement said.
Besides Spain, it named the others as France, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands, Chile, Argentina, Panama, Costa Rica, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay.
