Naples, Carabiniere Arrested: He Connected to Child Pornography Sites from the Barracks.
There is also a member of the police force among the three arrested in flagrante delicto, two in Naples and one in Pisa, by the postal police as part of the 'Scacco matto' investigation against the possession and dissemination of child pornography and incitement to pedophilia. He is a carabiniere on duty in the Campania capital who is also accused of embezzlement by the Catania District Attorney's Office: according to the accusation, he used public administration accounts to connect online to commit illegal activities.
– Vast and complex operation against child pornography on the Internet conducted by the State Police and coordinated by the District Attorney's Office of Catania, with searches and seizures in Bolzano, Brescia, Catania, Chieti, Como, Lecco, Milan, Naples, Parma, Pisa, Rome, Savona, Sassari, Turin, Treviso and Varese as well as in other foreign cities. Twenty Italians were reported, three of whom were arrested red-handed because they were held responsible for the possession and dissemination of child pornography material as well as incitement to paedophilic practices. Numerous foreign individuals have been reported to the authorities of their countries of residence. The investigations, conducted by the Postal Police of Catania in collaboration with the National Center for the Countering of Online Child Pornography (CNCPO) of the Postal Police Service of Rome, consisted of a long undercover activity, duly authorized by the Prosecutor's Office, resulting from web monitoring and the subsequent discovery of a site, hosted on a server in a foreign country, containing images of child pornography and comments that explicitly incited the commission of sexual acts against minors, published by hundreds of completely anonymous users. Many of these users, once they came into contact with each other, moved to other virtual platforms considered safer, with anonymization systems (TOR, VPN) and encrypted messaging services, thus starting to exchange photos and videos of a child pornography nature, catalogued according to criteria of age, sex and ethnicity, with horrifying abuse of minors, even newborns, victims of sadistic practices. On several occasions, they shared stories of their alleged sexual experiences with minors. This criminal ring was infiltrated by police officers who operated undercover for over a year, pretending to be paedophiles, using operational protocols that are now consolidated in the fight against online child pornography. This allowed the investigators, almost like in a "chess game" with the interlocutors (hence the name of the operation), to succeed in identifying them, despite the use of anonymization systems and their highly distrustful and suspicious attitudes. During the investigations, the Postal Police officers of Catania, thanks to meticulous research, collection and analysis of data, also managed to locate some of the places of abuse and identify three minor victims. The public prosecutor in charge of the investigations, in light of the evidence gathered, has urgently ordered immediate house, personal and computer searches of twenty of the identified individuals, resident in various parts of Italy, accusing them of the crimes of child pornography, possession and dissemination of child pornography material as well as incitement to paedophilic practices. Other users, residing in other countries, have been reported to the competent foreign authorities. At the same time as the searches, the District Attorney's Office activated protocols to protect minors directly and indirectly involved in the affair. During the searches, which involved various Italian cities, child pornography material and elements confirming the accusations against the suspects were found. In Naples and Pisa, three of the suspects were arrested red-handed, having been found in possession of thousands of child pornography files of significant gravity.
Article published on 10 October 2020 - 16:37
