Undercover agents arrest eight people in child pornography

Child pornography images and videos, many of which depict very serious abuses against children, even at a very young age: eight people aged between 47 and 70 years old were arrested by the Police between the provinces of Naples, Salerno, Avellino and Caserta by the State Police.

The arrests were made during the searches and were validated by the competent investigating judges. A total of 10 suspects are under investigation—two residents of Caserta and Potenza have been charged—charged with possession of child pornography.

Two other people, residents of the provinces of Caserta and Potenza, have been reported at large.

The investigations of the Naples Prosecutor's Office and the agents infiltrated into the network

The operation, coordinated by the Naples Public Prosecutor's Office, Section for the Protection of Vulnerable Groups, was launched last February by specialists from the Naples Cybersecurity Operations Center and conducted undercover in the virtual environments frequented by individuals who exchanged and distributed child pornography.

Through extensive online infiltration work, investigators operated for a period within particularly closed and secretive criminal environments, characterized by high levels of anonymity and sophisticated techniques to evade user identification.

Platforms used to share files containing child pornography content

- agents They thus identified and monitored several platforms used for the uploading, storage and sharing of illicit files, finding the sharing of thousands of documents containing child pornography.

Unsuspected and clean criminals on the net

The digital identities of the users were thus reconstructed, some of whom were deemed "above suspicion" in line with the sexual and gender identity disorder that characterizes pedophiles.

The evidence gathered allowed the judicial authorities to issue 11 search warrants, executed in the provinces of Naples, Avellino, Salerno, Benevento, Caserta, and Potenza, with the involvement of 50 highly specialized operators from the Naples Operations Center and its dependent territorial sections.

Computer devices used to upload and share child pornography were searched and found in the homes. The applications used to upload and share child pornography were identified within the devices.

Child abuse and sexual content in images and videos

The computer search and technical analysis of the material found led to the discovery of a significant quantity of child pornography images and videos, including content depicting very serious abuse of children, including very young children. This led to the arrest of eight people in flagrante delicto, which was subsequently validated by various investigating judges of the competent courts.