Two Arrested in Alicante in Major Police Operation Against Child Pornography

The National Police have conducted a complex operation against child pornography resulting in 61 arrests in Spain, two of them in Alicante, and 17 individuals investigated for possession, production, and distribution of child pornography material. Among those arrested is a former military officer who had nine assault rifles and handguns at home, and a secondary school teacher with foster children.

According to police sources, more than 200 officers from various territorial units participated. The complexity of this operation lay in the large number of individuals investigated and searches conducted across Spain, up to 100. Officers seized thousands of files of child sexual exploitation.

The investigation, executed at the beginning of June, was coordinated by the Central Cybercrime Unit along with the Special Prosecutor's Office for Computer Crime, involving 200 officers from across the territory and various units.

A massive operation that led to the seizure of a large number of electronic devices, including 37 mobile phones, 63 computers (both desktops and laptops), 229 hard drives, 58 USB sticks, and over 1,600 different storage devices.

Additionally, 110 individuals were investigated, with 61 arrested in the following provinces: Vizcaya (2), Guipúzcoa (1), Segovia (1), Ávila (1), Soria (1), Zamora (1), Burgos (2), León (1), Valladolid (2), Salamanca (1), Alicante (2), Castellón (2), Navarra (1), Lleida (1), Girona (2), Balearic Islands (1), Melilla (2), La Rioja (1), Cantabria (2), Cáceres (1), Las Palmas (2), Santa Cruz de Tenerife (2), Zaragoza (3), Huesca (2), Asturias (2), Madrid (4), Guadalajara (2), Albacete (1), Ciudad Real (1), Toledo (3), Ourense (1), Lugo (1), A Coruña (2), Seville (2), Málaga (1), Granada (1), Cádiz (2), and Almería (1).

Among those arrested are individuals from all walks of life. For instance, one used the Wi-Fi connection of a hospitality establishment for these purposes. Officers identified and located him in Ourense after observing a download pattern at certain times and detecting a real-time connection, identifying the person doing it at that moment.

Another detainee was in Castellón. He is a computer engineer who installed a wired connection to share the internet from which he downloaded and distributed pornographic material along with his brother, who lived just upstairs.

In Madrid, police officers arrested a man in Coslada who deleted all the material, although subsequent analysis confirmed the downloads and distribution of this material. He is a former military officer, and they found nine firearms and a large amount of ammunition at his home.

In addition to all these arrests, the National Police apprehended a secondary school teacher in Las Palmas. The teacher had foster children and took advantage of any activity to record the minors while they engaged in sexual conduct or when they were naked.