44 arrested in Australian child exploitation swoop
Australian police said Friday they've charged 44 men with possessing and producing child-abuse material -
after a year-long investigation into dissemination of abhorrent content on the internet.
The operation led to arrests in almost all of the country's eight states and territories.
The ages of the accused ranged from 19 to 57, with occupations including construction, transport, law enforcement and hospitality.
Police did not identify the men, nor say when they had been arrested.
They face 350 charges between them.
Reece Kershaw is the commissioner for the Australian Federal Police.
"Pixel by pixel, our investigators painstakingly look for clues and never give up and the tools they use give Australian police access to world leading expertise and from July 1 2019, to 30 June 2020, as a result of AFP investigations there were 134 children who were removed from harm, 67 domestically and 67 internationally."
The AFP said it began the investigation after receiving a report that thousands of people were using an unspecified cloud storage platform to spread child-abuse material.
