2 July 2002
  Updated: 13:05 GMT
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Police bust global Net pedo ring
Posted: 02/07/2002 at 12:25 GMT

Police have arrested 50 in co-ordinated international raids this morning aimed at breaking up a ring of paedophiles trading indecent pictures over the Internet.

Operation Twins was lead by the UK's National Hi-Tech Crime Unit, which has investigated a group called the Shadowz Brotherhood for over a year. Scores of computers and discs were confiscating during the raids.

The Brotherhood is believed to have a membership of around 100 and operated through a Web site which gave paedophiles secure access to how to 'groom' children for abuse and advice on how to escape detection.

Six of the 50 arrests were made in Britain, and 31 in Germany but the investigation spanned the globe involving officers in seven countries in North America and Western Europe.

Many of those arrested posted images of their abuse of children on the Internet, Police believe.

Sixteen people have already been arrested worldwide as part of the same case and one of those - a US Air Force officer - committed suicide, the BBC reports.

"In terms of the kinds of material they are posting and allowing access to it's the worst group I have encountered," said Detective Chief Superintendent Len Hynds, Head of the UK National Hi-Tech Crime Unit, told the BBC.

"This group were using highly sophisticated technical means to continue their criminal activities and to avoid detection." ®

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