RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Brazilian Federal Police (PF) yesterday detained a suspect of creating and maintaining one of the largest Portuguese-language forums on child pornography on the Internet, official sources reported.
‘Operação Desvelada’ triggered yesterday morning by the PF, through international police cooperation, was investigating people engaged in sharing pornographic images involving children and adolescents.
According to the investigations, a Brazilian was responsible for creating and maintaining one of the largest Portuguese language forums on child pornography on the ‘deep web’, the name for an area of the internet that cannot be easily detected by traditional search engines, ensuring privacy and anonymity to its users.
“In addition to providing the platform to users around the world, the suspect also published a large number of videos and pictures of himself raping various victims. The girls’ ages ranged from five to 12 years,” stated the PF.
According to the authorities, the suspect is a Brazilian who lives in the state of São Paulo, “approximately 50 years old, single, with a daughter and a grandson”.
The forum, as well as other platforms created by the suspect, were already known to the police in several countries.
“So far, there is no indication of third party involvement, which will be further clarified by the analysis of the material seized at the scene and the hearing of those concerned (aggressor, victims and relatives),” the PF added in its statement.
The Federal Police are also investigating the “probable commercialization” of part of the criminal collection produced by the suspect.
The crime of publishing child pornography images carries a penalty of three to six years incarceration. The sexual rape of a vulnerable person provides for eight to 15 years imprisonment.
The police operation was announced by the Brazilian Minister of Justice, André Mendonça, who congratulated the agents involved. “An outstanding work of cyber investigation by the Federal Police and international cooperation that resulted in the arrest of an individual charged with rape of vulnerable persons and sexual exploitation on the Internet. Congratulations to the police officers involved,” wrote the Minister on Twitter.