More than 900 arrested in child porn probe

More than 900 people have been arrested worldwide as part of an international investigation into subscriptions to child porn websites, Swiss police revealed today.

The arrests were in Britain, the US, Denmark, Finland, France, Hong Kong, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland, federal police spokesman Guido Balmer said.

Swiss police, acting on leads provided by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, arrested 10 people last week, eight of whom are also suspected of child molestation.

Swiss investigators searched more than 400 homes and examined more than 100,000 photo and video files in an operation, Balmer said.

The worldwide ICE-led investigation started with an investigation into an Internet billing company in Minsk, capital of the former Soviet republic of Belarus.

“In January 2004, the company was charged with money laundering as well as providing credit card billing services for 50 child pornography websites worldwide and operating child porn websites on its own,” ICE said in a statement.

“Three officers of the company have been arrested in Europe, and two officers of an affiliated company in Florida have pleaded guilty.”

The 120-nation investigation moved on to those who had purchased child pornography subscriptions from these sites around the world.