A dark network, hidden behind computer and smartphone screens, was unmasked after months of investigation. This is the result of a complex operation coordinated by the District Prosecutor of Catania and conducted by the Postal Police, which brought to light a vast round of child pornography, with five people investigated and three arrested in the act of crime.
It all started when the American non -profit organization Child Rescue Coalition has identified some suspicious accounts involved in the exchange of images and videos of child pornography in Sicily. From there, the report passed to the Cybernetic security operating center in Catania, which started a long digital monitoring activity, made of analysis, traces and data crossings.
The computer traces brought investigators in front of a disturbing mosaic: tens of thousands of illegal files, kept on computers, hard disks and phones of different users. The Catania Prosecutor’s Office thus ordered decrees of personal and IT search against suspects.
When the postal police officers entered the houses of the suspects, the reality was shown in all its gravity: in the devices of three of them, a large quantity of childhood images and videos was found. The three men were arrested in the act of crime. The precautionary measures were validated by the judges for the preliminary investigations of the courts of Syracuse, Ragusa and Caltanissetta, who ordered house arrest for them.
The suspects, all male, have different profiles: employees, professionals, students and pensioners, some of whom are fathers of minor children. Their ages vary from 30 to 70 years and are resident in the provinces of Syracuse, Ragusa, Messina, Caltanissetta and Reggio Calabria.