SICKOS SNARED
Europe’s biggest ever paedophile ring is smashed after cops bust gang who specialised in sharing sick child abuse images on WhatsApp
Cops have made 39 arrests so far after discovering almost 100 sick paedophile groups using the app
EUROPE'S biggest paedophile ring has been smashed by cops after swapping hundreds of thousands of child abuse images over Whatsapp.
Police have made 39 arrests in 10 countries and seized 360,000 files, including documents with details of attacks on young children dating back two decades, including their addresses.
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Cops said the sick images revealed abuse of babies and children up to the age of eight subjected to humiliating treatment and brutality.
Seventeen suspects come from Spain, six were arrested in Colombia, four in Italy, two in Germany, three in Bolivia, two in Costa Rica, two in Paraguay, one in Chile, one in El Salvador and one in Portugal.
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Cops expect there will be further arrests as they investigate a further 96 paedophile groups discovered on Whatsapp.
The major op was the first joint international crackdown on child sex abuse images in the EU.
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A Spanish police spokesman said: "Researchers have studied more than 360,000 files involving those arrested in the plot and have located in one of the raids in Lugo, numerous manuscript material containing names, ages and places of encounters with minors, some of them dated 20 years ago.
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"The photographic and video files distributed in these channels are characterised by humiliating treatment and an excessive brutality on the victims, of ages between zero and eight years."
The investigation began in June 2016 when police were told about a secret link on the network which allowed paedophiles to share pictures and videos anonymously via instant messaging.
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The spokesman said: "Advanced research was able to detect about 96 groups of WhatsApp, as well as 103 distributors located in different countries, of which 17 of them resided in Spain."
Raids were carried out at 19 different locations in Europe with mobile phones, laptops, storage devices, cameras and external hard drivers all being seized.
The operation was co-ordinated by the Action Group on Cybercrime and involved Spanish police, Europol and Interpol.
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