Italian police arrested 12 people on Wednesday in a child pornography investigation. The arrests included a man claiming to have contacts in online child protection.
Authorities also cited 14 suspects and seized numerous computer devices containing tens of thousands of child pornography files. The operation targeted online child pornography networks across 18 cities.
The investigation was led by the State Police’s Operational Center for Cyber Security in Venice, in coordination with the local prosecutor’s office and the National Center for Countering Online Child Pornography. Police described the operation as complex, with arrests made for possession of large amounts of illegal material.
Codenamed “Viper 2,” the operation followed a previous undercover investigation by Venice’s COSC special unit. That earlier probe resulted in 60 searches and the arrest of 28 people linked to international paedophile communities.
The latest operation spanned multiple provinces, including Lecce, Sassari, Siracusa, Massa, Pisa, Bergamo, Milan, Monza Brianza, Isernia, Caserta, Reggio Calabria, Rome, Alessandria, Cuneo, Novara, Venice, Vicenza, and Treviso. The 12 arrested suspects, all men aged between 22 and 69, included one who used supposed professional connections as an alibi to amass illegal material.
Investigators carried out the probe undercover on a well-known messaging platform. They monitored about 130 virtual groups where paedophiles exchanged thousands of photos and videos. Authorities informed against foreign users in the chats, to their respective countries, through international police channels.
The Venice Prosecutor’s Office issued 26 search warrants, executed by around 200 Postal Police officers across 18 provinces. The arrests took place in Sassari, Siracusa, Pisa, Milan, Isernia, Rome, Alessandria, Venice, and Treviso.
Nearly 7,000 crimes against minors, including child pornography were reported in Italy in 2023.
