An investigation initiated in Lanzarote in September 2015 has closed with three arrests in Barcelona and Madrid for the possession and distribution of child pornography. The Civil Guard's investigations began in Costa Teguise, by the Territorial Team of the Judicial Police, "after detecting the existence of users of P2P networks who would be downloading and sharing files with content of sexual abuse of minors".
The agents detected these exchanges using the search engine that the Civil Guard has – called "Quijote" - to investigate crimes related to child pornography, and which is coordinated with other police forces in countries of the European Union.
After identifying and locating the addresses from where the downloads were made and the files were distributed, the people who disseminated them were identified and arrested between May 24 and November 30 of the current year, when the so-called "Operation Madejas" was completed.
The Civil Guard carried out a total of three home searches, in which the computer equipment was found from where the detainees accessed the Internet to download and distribute these files. In addition, in these records 48 hard drives, three computers, two smartphones and 63 DVDs containing "a large number of files with pedophile content" were seized, according to the Civil Guard.
"Files with images of great hardness"
"Currently, the investigators are still analyzing a multitude of files with pedophile content with images of great hardness in order to identify the largest possible number of victims, since many of them could continue to suffer this type of abuse. Work is also being done to determine if any of those involved could have connections with other pedophiles who interact on the network," explains the Benemérita in a statement.
In this operation, which has been directed by Courts of Instruction of Esplugues de Llobregat, Granollers and Madrid, has been carried out by the ETPJ of Costa Teguise, together with the members of the Technological Investigation Team (EDITE) and the Crimes against Persons Team of the Organic Unit of the Judicial Police of the Civil Guard of Las Palmas, who have had the collaboration of the Organic Units of the Judicial Police of Barcelona and Madrid.
As for the detainees, one of them resided in Madrid, is 57 years old and responds to the initials of A.M.M.M and the other two were arrested in the Barcelona towns of Esplugues de Llobregat and Llica de Vall. These are F.P.H. and R.O.M., 38 and 50 years old respectively. All of them are charged with allegedly downloading and sharing pornographic material with minors through the Internet, through P2P file sharing networks.
