A complex investigative activity launched in 2024 as part of the ’Fly Trap’ operation by the State Police, coordinated by the Anti-Mafia District Directorate of the Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Court of Rome and conducted by the National Center for Combating Online Child Pornography of the Postal Police Service and Cybersecurity, led to the execution of 6 precautionary measures, one suspect detention, and the arrest of 10 people in flagrante delicto for possession of a large amount of child pornography material, after 23 local, personal, and computer searches ordered by the Public Prosecutor’s Office against the suspects, both as administrators and as simple members, of the criminal association aimed at possession, trade, dissemination, and advertising of large quantities of child pornography material subject to this investigation.
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The investigations were initiated by the Postal Police in 2024 following information shared, within the framework of international cooperation, by the United States Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agency regarding the presence on Telegram of a private group called ’New Saga’, dedicated to the dissemination of child pornography material. The investigative activities carried out and the analysis of cryptocurrency transactions used to access the community allowed the identification of one of the administrators, a twenty-four-year-old from Campania, who was then subjected to personal, local, and computer searches in May 2024 and to start a complex undercover operation.
Prosecutor Lo Voi: horrendous criminal phenomenon
“An unworthy trade of minors.” This was said by the chief prosecutor of Rome, Francesco Lo Voi, during a press conference at the offices in Piazzale Clodio to illustrate the results of the investigation that led to the arrest of 17 people accused of being part of an organization dedicated to the online dissemination of child pornography material.
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“It was a particularly important investigation, not only for the numbers. What we discovered was an organization with a structure comparable to a multinational company and with key figures who performed administrative functions,” explained the head of the investigators in the Capital, stating that “decisive was the ability of an agent who managed to infiltrate this organization and gain the trust of the organization until he also became an administrator” of the group, added Lo Voi.
It emerged – he continued – “a horrendous criminal phenomenon” where “the organization had over a thousand users worldwide, of which over 20 in Italy, who paid with cryptocurrencies to access the content,” from 3 to 9 dollars monthly. The “disheartening” fact is the novelty concerning the very young age of the members of the organization and the ability to generate money from this horrendous criminal phenomenon,” highlighted Lo Voi.
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