A new international Paedophile Network brought down (06/08/11)

The American Justice Minister has announced that a large paedophile network has been dismantled. It had been active in about fifteen countries, including France. Seventy-two people were charged, resulting in fifty-two arrests.

The fruits of an enquiry lasting almost two years have been revealed. On Wednesday evening the American Justice Minister announced that no fewer than fifty-two people had been arrested after the dismantling of a vast paedophile network. It was a network that operated freely across the US borders. The arrests were effectively made in fourteen different countries. From Qatar to the Philippines, through Kenya and France, five continents were involved. The first details revealed, with regard to the methods that the site creators and members used, send a chill up one’s spine. These details were expanded upon in a statement by the US General prosecutor, Eric Holder. “The members of this criminal network shared the project, bent on creating an online community designed to promote the sexual exploitation of children.”

While sending pictures and videos of abuse carried out on boys and girls of twelve years and over, they had developed a sound and clearly stated ideology: “Sexually assaulting children is acceptable behaviour and should not be criminalised.” Called ‘Dreamboard,’ the site threatened members who did not upload enough material with exclusion, and offered ‘VIP Status’ to the most prolific contributors. The site’s administrators encouraged internationalisation, and the regulations were published in English, Russian, Spanish and Japanese. The task of those conducting the inquiry was made harder by certain ‘precautions’ taken by the site’s most loyal members, in an effort to avoid public identification. They even used certain types of encryption
software, operated under false identities and changed their IP addresses using special servers.

Twenty people still wanted

Thus passed the year and nine months since the inquiry was opened, in December 2009. Named ‘Operation Delego,’ it required the collaboration of tens of police forces around the world, from Eurojust (the European justice cooperation organisation), and various American authorities. The Ministry also announced that of the fifty-two arrested, thirteen have pleaded guilty and four have already stood trial on American soil, with sentences up to thirty years in prison. So there now remain twenty people, charged but still wanted. For the moment, only their ‘Dreamboard’ pseudonyms are known. A successful inquiry thus far, but definitely not yet closed.

Source text written by Antoine Delthil. See the full French article here: http://www.parismatch.com/Actu-Match/Monde/Actu/Un-nouveau-reseau-pedophile-international-demantele-320027/