Nine people were arrested in flagrante delicto by the State Police as part of a vast operation throughout the country to combat online child pornography, coordinated by the District Prosecutor’s Office of Catania. The investigation, conducted by the Cyber Security Operations Center of the Catania Postal Police, made it possible to investigate 26 people in various regions for possession and dissemination of child pornography material, subjected to personal and computer searches. Thousands of files seized, exchanges of horrifying images and videos, with abuse even of very young children.
Computer analysis started from a seized device
The investigations, coordinated by the National Center for combating online child pornography (Cncpo) of the Postal Police service, began with a complex IT analysis activity on some electronic devices seized from a suspect, arrested months ago for the same conduct, on which – within a messaging platform – had been found groups dedicated to the exchange of images and videos. Meticulous and complex investigations, even of an extremely technical nature, led to the identification of the subjects active in the groups, against whom the Catania District Attorney’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). The material found and seized during the searches is being examined by the Catania District Prosecutor’s Office and the Postal Police for further investigative investigations also useful for the identification of the young victims.
