A total of 98 people have been arrested in connection with child sex abuse, and 13 children rescued from harm, US and Australian authorities said Tuesday, more than two years after two FBI agents were killed investigating an alleged international pedophile ring.
In a news conference Tuesday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Australian Federal Police (AFP) said 79 arrests, 65 indictments, and 43 convictions in the US were carried out as a result of the joint operation, while 19 men were arrested in Australia.
Two FBI agents investigating the alleged ring were shot dead in 2021 while executing a search warrant for a computer programmer suspected of possession of child abuse material, CNN previously reported.
The alleged child abuse ring was a “peer to peer network” with “some offenders committing offenses for over 10 years,” said Australian Federal Police Commander Helen Schneider.
“Some of the children were known to the men who were arrested,” Schneider added, but refused to comment further.
Australian investigation
The Australian police investigation began in 2022 when the FBI passed on details of Australian members of a peer-to-peer network allegedly sharing child abuse material on the dark web.
“This operation was highly complex,” the FBI’s legal attaché in Canberra, Nitiana Mann, told reporters Tuesday. “The complexity and anonymity of these platforms means that no agency or country can fight these threats alone.”
Source: cnn.com
