By Corey William
International police led by a UK team has busted the world’s largest internet pedophile ring yet discovered. The global forum had once 70,000 followers. The police have r identified 670 suspects and 230 abused children so far. Around 184 people have been arrested - 121 of them were in the UK. Police added that some 60 children have been rescued in the UK. The three-year investigation named Operation Rescue was led by investigators from the UK's Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop).
Addressing a press conference at The Hague in the Netherlands, investigators said the network operated from the UK by hiding itself behind a legal online forum but has members from around the world. The suspects have been identified in Australia, Italy, Canada, New Zealand and Thailand as well.
Rob Wainwright, director of European police agency Europol, said that the members of the network used a private channel, boylover.net, and then share films and images of abused children using its secret systems. However, child abuse investigators, including a team from Ceop, had already infiltrated the network and were posing as pedophiles to gather intelligence.
Peter Davies, head of Ceop, said: "The scale and success of Operation Rescue has broken new ground. Not only is it one of the largest operations of its kind to date - and the biggest operation we have led - it also demonstrates the impact of international law enforcement agencies working together with one single objective, to safeguard children and bring offenders to justice. “ "While these offenders felt anonymous in some way because they were using the internet to communicate, the technology was actually being used against them,” he added.
