Police from around the world say they have broken up the largest internet paedophile ring yet discovered. Rob Wainwright, head of Europol, the European Police Agency, said the abuse network had 70,000 members and links to 30 countries.
The operation has identified 670 suspects and 230 abused children. Detectives say 170 people have so far been arrested - and 121 of them were in the UK. Some 60 children have been protected in the UK.
Speaking at a press conference at The Hague in the Netherlands, Mr Wainwright said the three-year investigation, Operation Rescue, involved infiltrating an online network.
The network hid behind a legal online forum which operated out of the Netherlands - but its members came from around the world. Along with the Netherlands and UK, suspects have been identified in Australia, Italy, Canada and Thailand.
The members of the network went into a private channel, boylover.net, and then used its secret systems to share films and images of abused children, said Mr Wainwright.
However, child abuse investigators, including a team from the UK's Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, had already infiltrated the network and were posing as paedophiles to gather intelligence.
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