Australian police crack global pedophile ring

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian police said on Wednesday they had infiltrated a network of international pedophiles, culminating in raids and arrests in Australia, the United States, Germany and Britain.

Operation Achilles, which was co-ordinated by the FBI in the United States, began in January 2006 and ended on February 29, 2008, with police staging raids around the world.

Australian police said the international covert operation uncovered 2,500 "customers" in 19 countries and thousands of computers, videos and photographs were seized. In a large number of cases, more than a million files and pictures were found.

"It will be alleged that the network traded images depicting the violent sexual abuse of children globally, including having children sexually abused live and on demand for the benefit of its members," police in the Australian state of Queensland said in a statement.

More than 40 children were rescued from sexually abusive situations and 22 members of the pedophile network were arrested.

Police also closed four commercial child sex Web sites and arrested more than 100 people for allegedly purchasing child sex material.

"It has been the most significant infiltration of an international child exploitation network by a law enforcement agency, anywhere in the world," said Queensland police superintendent Peter Crawford from the state sexual crimes squad.

"The major challenge for this investigation was to unravel the intricate web that networked offenders had weaved to protect themselves, incorporating strict guidelines, rules and encryption," Crawford said in the statement.

Operation Achilles began in January 2006 when Queensland police received intelligence from the Department of Internal Affairs in New Zealand. Queensland's Taskforce Argos, which investigates child sex abuse, infiltrated the network using covert operatives.

ARRESTS

In June 2006, Australian police intercepted several videos depicting two young girls being sexually abused by a Belgian man. The commercially produced video was relayed to police in France, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Belgium.

The man was arrested and the children taken into protective custody.

On August 16, 2006, following information from Interpol and Belgian investigators, Italian authorities arrested the alleged pedophile Web site creator, administrator and filmmaker. It is alleged he produced more than 150 videos, many produced to order in the Ukraine, the Netherlands and Belgium.

A number of child victims were identified as a result and were removed from harm, Queensland police said.

The discovery of the videos and child abuse Web sites started a 15-month investigation by Europol, codenamed "Koala" in recognition of its Australian origins.

The United States was chosen as the base for operations as the majority of the sex offender network members were U.S. residents, said police.

"It was a significant enterprise with global reach. They had strict written security and some very sophisticated encryption," the FBI's Executive Assistant Director Stephen Tidwell told Australian television on Wednesday.

"We have terabytes of information that we are going to have to work on now to identify further victims."

In raids on February 29, Australian police arrested a 29-year-old man in Queensland they say was a senior administrator of the pedophile network. A second Australian was arrested in Victoria and also charged with possessing child pornography and transmitting child pornography.

"We know the founding fathers of the group have known each other for 10 years and they have gone without detection for that long," said detective inspector John Rouse, from Taskforce Argos.

"In child sex offender networks these guys were revered. They were held aloft as the untouchables."

(Editing by David Fogarty)