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More than 300 men of the Postal Police Since the early hours of the morning they have been conducting searches and red flag arrests in 53 Italian provinces and 18 regions. This is the most massive police operation in recent years against online child pornography. Then two years of research carried out “undercover” on the Internet, the Milan Postal Police and the CNCPO – National Center for the Contrast of Child Pornography Online of the Rome Postal Police Service, coordinated by Deputy Prosecutors Fusco and Mannella together with Deputies Barilli and Tarzia of the Milan District Attorney, have identified 432 users who, taking advantage of the potential of widespread applications WhatsApp and Telegram, participated in “channels” and “groups” intended to share photos and videos of child pornography that portray sexual violence against minors; the abuses, in particular, affected mainly girls and boys and, in some cases, even babies.
Of the 159 groups identified by the Postal Police investigators, 16 were real criminal associations, within which promoters, organizers and participants could be distinguished, with well-defined roles and tasks. Each group was governed by strict and precise rules of conduct aimed at preserving the anonymity – and thus the “safety” – of the criminal association, as well as of the individual participants. The violation of these rules implied, in fact, the expulsion by the administrators. The long and widespread investigation has made it possible to name the nicknames used in the network by pedophiles, bringing them to light and out of the anonymity of the network. 81 Italians have been identified by the Milan Postal Police, two of whom, a 71-year-old Neapolitan optician with university collaborations and a 20-year-old unemployed Venetian, promoted and managed child pornography groups, organizing their activities and recruiting new associates from around the world. Transnationality is a trait that unites all the groups discovered by the infiltrated agents. In fact, 351 foreign users are involved in the survey, for each of which all useful computer traces have been collected for identification. These elements, shared through the Police Service of Posts and Communications with international police cooperation agencies, allowed their arrest both in Europe and in the rest of the world.
The activity carried out highlighted how the criminal phenomenon in question is absolutely transversal, since among the suspects there are people of very heterogeneous social origins and ages, such as Established professionals, workers, students, retirees, public and private employees, including a traffic watchman and several unemployed, aged between 18 and 71 years. Finally, with reference to the geographical factor, it should be noted that the regions most affected are Lombardy and Campania. In fact, 35% of the suspects reside in these territories. The personal, local and computer system searches carried out by the Milan District Prosecutor’s Office led to the seizure of mobile phones, tablets, hard drives, pen drives, computers and email accounts and social profiles. During the raids, the stories used by the suspects to request child pornography material and a large amount of illicit material stored in the computer media were also found. Today’s activity is one more activity of the Postal Police which, it must be remembered, carries out 24-hour monitoring of the entire Internet network to protect minors and all vulnerable groups. Prevention and contrast with the phenomenon of sexual exploitation of minors online see the Postal Police at the forefront. For this reason, it is of fundamental importance that all users report any illegal content found on the web, by contacting the Post and Communications Police and through the PS Online Police Station (www.commissariatodips.it), where useful guidelines and suggestions are proposed . contain the risks present in the network, both through the different Sections and Departments of the Postal Police present throughout the national territory.
The phenomenon also affected some of the provinces of Apulia, where 4 searches were carried out (3 in the province of Bari, 1 in the province of Taranto), which resulted in the seizure of 5 smartphones used by the suspects, with ages between Between 18 and 50 years old, all without work. The suspects were referred to the judicial authority and the seized material was made available to the investigating authority.
