Nine arrests in the act, one of which in the province of Bergamo, were carried out by the State Police during a vast operation throughout the national territory to combat online child pornography, coordinated by the District Attorney’s Office of Catania. The investigation, conducted by the Cyber Security Operations Center of the Catania Postal Police, allowed the investigation of 26 people throughout Italy for possession and dissemination of child pornography materialsubjected to personal and IT searches.
The investigations, coordinated by the National Center for Combating Online Child Pornography of the Postal Police Service, began with a complex computer analysis activity on some electronic devices seized from a suspect, arrested months ago for the same conduct, on which – within a messaging platform – groups dedicated to exchange of gruesome images and videos, with abuse even of very young children. Meticulous and complex investigations, including those of a technical nature, led to the identification of the individuals active in the groups, against whom the Prosecutor’s Office issued personal and computer search orders.
The searches were carried out with the collaboration of the various Operational Centers for Cyber Security of the Postal Police, in Catania (1), Rome (3), Milan (3), Brescia (2), Varese (1), Bergamo (1)Catanzaro (1), Bari (2), Foggia (1), Turin (2), Cuneo (1), Genoa (2), Imperia (1), Avellino (1), Livorno (1), Prato (1) , Ravenna (1), Ascoli Piceno (1). Those arrested reside in the provinces of Catania (1), Rome (1), Milan (2), Florence (1), Bergamo (1)Ravenna (1), Varese (1) and Imperia (1). One of them, in addition to thousands of child pornography files, had the digital format of the book “Pedophile’s Guide” in his cloud. The material found and seized during the searches is being examined by the investigating magistrates and the Postal Police for further investigative investigations also useful for the identification of the young victims.
