A Former Soldier and a Secondary School Teacher Among 61 Arrested by Police for Child Pornography

Blow to child pornography. The National Police have arrested 61 individuals for possession, production, and distribution of child sexual exploitation material in a wide-ranging operation involving a hundred searches across Spain. Among those arrested are a former professional soldier, who was found with nine firearms and a large amount of ammunition, a secondary school teacher who had minors in foster care, and a computer engineer, according to the National Police.

More than 200 officers from various territorial units participated in this operation. The investigation was highly complex due to the large number of individuals investigated and searches conducted, the numerous judicial authorities involved, and the thousands of files seized.

Among those arrested is an individual in the Madrid municipality of Coslada who took security measures and deleted the illicit material downloaded. As a result of the analysis of the seized devices, officers confirmed that he downloaded and distributed child sexual exploitation files. Additionally, during the search of his home, they found nine long, short, and war firearms, as well as a large amount of ammunition.

A secondary school teacher was also arrested in Las Palmas, who also had minors in foster care. This individual took advantage of any activity to record minors while they engaged in sexual conduct or when they were naked.

Among those arrested is also an individual who used the public WiFi connection of a hospitality establishment. Officers managed to identify and locate him in Ourense after observing a download pattern at certain times that allowed them to detect a real-time connection and the person who, with a laptop, made the investigated connections.

Another of the accused, arrested in Castellón, is a computer engineer with advanced knowledge and technical skills. This led him to set up a wired installation to share the Internet connection, from which he downloaded and distributed child sexual exploitation material, with his brother—who lived on the upper floor and was the line holder.

As a result of the operation, a large number of electronic devices were seized, including 37 mobile phones, 63 computers (desktop and laptops), 229 hard drives, 58 USB drives, and over 1,600 different storage devices. Additionally, 110 individuals were investigated for possession, production, and distribution of child pornography, resulting in 61 arrests and 17 non-detained investigations.

The arrests were made in the provinces of 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).