Turin – A new, disturbing glimpse into the abyss of online child pornography. A horror that knows no age or geographical boundaries, as demonstrated by the latest State Police operation that has shocked the country.
Two apparently unsuspecting men, aged 46 and 77, were arrested in flagrante delicto in Turin and Salerno. The charges, among the most heinous: possession of child pornography.
The operation, which involved extensive searches in Piedmont and Campania and five other regions, is the result of a complex investigative effort conducted by the Cyber Security Operations Center (COSC) in Milan.
The origin of the investigation
This major operation didn't arise out of nowhere, but has its roots in a previous case that had already raised alarm. As announced by the Milan Police Headquarters, today's activity is a continuation of an investigation that began in Sondrio, which in January led to the arrest of a former high school teacher. The man had been arrested for possession and, more seriously, for disseminating those same disturbing images.
By analyzing the devices and digital traces left by the former teacher, specialists from the Milan Postal Police began to map a network of contacts, a dark thread connecting several apparently unrelated users.
The blitz in seven cities
Thanks to the evidence collected and patiently pieced together by investigators, the Milan Public Prosecutor's Office issued seven search warrants against as many individuals.
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It was a large-scale, coordinated operation, requiring the collaboration of the Postal Police offices of Lombardy, Campania, Piedmont, Tuscany, and Umbria. Officers knocked on doors in Florence, Genoa, Naples, Turin, Prato, Salerno, and Terni.
The horror in the seized devices
During the simultaneous searches, computers, external hard drives, smartphones, and digital memory sticks were inspected. And from those devices, the horror lurking behind a click emerged.
Investigators found and seized numerous illegal videos and photographs, including pornographic content depicting child abuse. Police emphasized a chilling detail: the victims were "sometimes very young."
An archive of violence that, unfortunately, wasn't the result of chance. Analysis of the "web browsing traces" on the suspects' devices revealed a "repeated search" for child pornography.
Not a stumble on the internet, but a methodical and deliberate hunt for stolen childhood images, thus fueling a criminal market that thrives in the shadows of the dark web and encrypted chat rooms. The two arrests in Turin and Salerno confirm the seriousness of the circumstantial evidence, while analyses of the material seized in other cities continue to determine the role of each suspect in the network.
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