During a press conference on Tuesday, the FBI and Australia’s counterpart AFP stated that the extensive operation, which has been ongoing for a long time, resulted in 98 arrests, 65 indictments and 43 convictions. The alleged crimes deal in one way or another with sexual abuse of children. Twelve children are also said to have been saved in the operation. Two FBI agents involved in the operation were shot dead in 2021 while conducting a search warrant at the home of a computer programmer suspected of possessing child abuse material. Three other FBI agents were injured and the suspected computer programmer died at the scene. It was the first time since November 2008 that an FBI agent had been shot dead on duty, writes CNN. Ran a ‘sophisticated network’ The Australian investigation started in 2022 after the US provided information about the pedophile network. 19 of those arrested were Australian citizens, and were part of what police describe as a “sophisticated network”. According to the police, the majority of them had jobs in IT that required advanced technical skills. They allegedly used encrypted software to anonymously share photos, chat and access various websites. “Viewing, distributing and producing child abuse material is a heinous crime, and the measures this network took to avoid detection is an indication of how dangerous they were,” said Helen Schneider of Australia’s AFP, according to CNN .
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