The German police have busted a child pornography website which had massive underground networks around the world and arrested four people in connection to running the website that sexually assaulted minors on film.
Shockingly, the website whose name has been withheld for security reasons, had 400,000 users and was operational since 2019 and managed to remain under the radar despite having a wide network.
Prosecutors said that the police raided their work place which operated with a fake job description and arrested three people in connection to the website. The trio maintained the website with all required backend work.
The fourth person was arrested by the police in suspicion of being a registered member on the platform and is alleged that the person had posted more than 3,500 videos and pictures of child pornography on the website and was among the top contributors for the operational of the website, according to Reuters.
The German police raided seven different properties in connection to their investigation in mid-April after the website was under their radar. According to the Associated Press, the police investigated the website for months and simultaneously worked with other law enforcement authorities in the Netherlands, Sweden, Australia, Canada and the U.S and shared information.
Authorities confirmed that the website was used in the worldwide exchange of child pornography and registered users were able to retrieve and exchange content with each other in chat rooms and voice channels, reported Reuters.
The Frankfurt public prosecutor's office and Federal Criminal Police Office Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) sent out a statement that the website was only accessible on the so-called "Darknet..'' The four people arrested are 40, 49, 58 and 64-year-old men and will be tried under the law with a harsh punishment.
Investigation is still underway and police hinted that several more arrests would be made in the coming weeks in connection to distributing child pornography, which is a crime all over the world.
Police confirmed that the website has been taken down after the raids but are in possession of the backend which contains all user details, videos and pictures and use the information to investigate and prosecute members who were part of the website.
