They also searched seven buildings in connection with the porn ring in mid-April in Germany.
The authorities said the platform was “one of the world’s biggest child pornography darknet platforms” and had been active at least since 2019. Paedophiles used it to exchange and watch pornography of children and toddlers, most of them boys, from all over the world.
Australian law enforcement authorities were called on to help with the investigation, along with those from the Netherlands, Sweden, the United States and Canada. A German police task force was set up to investigate the platform, its administrators and users for months in cooperation with Europol and the international partners.
Prosecutors wrote that they found “images of most severe sexual abuse of toddlers” among the photos and video material.
“The platform had several forums and chats — the illegal pictures and videos were kept in the forums; in the chats, the members could communicate,” prosecutor Julia Bussweiler said. “There were several language channels to facilitate the communication.”
The three main suspects were a 40-year-old man from Paderborn, a 49-year-old man from Munich and a 58-year-old man from northern Germany who had been living in Paraguay for many years, the prosecutors’ statement said. They worked as administrators of the site and gave advice to members on how to evade law enforcement when using the platform for illegal child pornography.
A fourth suspect, a 64-year-old man from Hamburg, is accused of being one of the most active users of the platform having allegedly uploaded more than 3500 posts.
Germany has requested the extradition of the suspect who was arrested in Paraguay.
No names were given in line with Germany privacy regulations.
After the raids in mid-April, the online platform was shut down.
Germany’s top security official thanked the authorities for their success.
“This investigative success has a clear message: Those who assault the weakest aren’t safe anywhere,” German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said.
“That’s what investigators work for day and night, online and offline, globally.”
“We’ll do everything within our power to protect the kids from these disgusting crimes,” he added.
This content first appear on 9news