A GLOBAL investigation into child pornography sold for Bitcoin on the underground internet reaped 337 arrests.
International police authorities announced the arrests on Wednesday, as well as the shutdown of the dark web’s most infamous paedophile site.
Authorities from the US, Britain, South Korea and other countries said they rescued 23 minor victims of sexual exploitation recorded by abusers who then sold the videos on the “Welcome to Video” site.
It sold the videos to users for Bitcoin, which makes it difficult to track the buyer.
From June 2015, when “Welcome to Video” started, to last March, the website received at least 420 Bitcoin virtual currency, about $370 000 (about R5,5 million) at the time of the payments, in 7 300 transactions, the US Justice Department said.
The server, which had 250 000 videos, was seized by international police on 5 March last year and the operator, 23-year-old Son Jong Woo, was jailed in Korea.
Since then, hundreds of users from 12 countries were tracked down and bust.
On Wednesday, US authorities revealed a US indictment of Son, as well as the seizure of virtual currency accounts of 24 people in five countries that were used to fund the website and exploit children.
The collaboration between world police agencies was sparked by the British investigation into a British scientist for child sex offences, according to Britain’s National Crime Agency. Matthew Falder was sentenced to 25 years in jail in 2017 after admitting 137 counts of online abuse.
Seven men have already been convicted in Britain since the first suspect was bust in 2017. US authorities have investigated 92 individuals in the case. Many have been charged and sentenced.
US attorney Jessie Liu said: “The site hosted over a quarter million videos and users downloaded more than a million files.” – NEWS24
