The Hague: Police in 22 European countries have arrested 112 suspects for allegedly sharing online videos of children being sexually abused and raped, policing agency Europol said Friday.
"So far in 22 coutries we have identified 269 suspects with 112 arrests", Europol's director Rob Wainwright said at a press conference at Europol's headquarters in The Hague.
"The operation targeted those sharing the most extreme forms of video material, which included babies and toddlers being sexually abused and raped," he said.
"A lot of the material seized during the house searches is awaiting forensic examination in order to support follow-up investigations and possible prosecution of offenders," he said.
In March, police in several countries arrested scores of alleged members of an online paedophile ring and rescued 230 children in what Europol called at the time "the biggest case of its kind" in a network that at one point had almost 70,000 members worldwide.
