56 arrested during paedophilia raids

FIFTY-SIX men have been arrested during a huge National Police operation which saw 39 homes across Spain searched for pornographic material featuring young children.

The Technological Investigation Unit had been investigating the case since early in 2015, when a group of people sharing the material on the internet was detected.

More than 173 hard drives and 614 CDs and DVDs have been confiscated from the arrestees’ homes, and is now being carefully examined to determine whether they will face charges of child abuse as well as sharing of pornography involving minors.

The operation, the police force reported, involved work by more than 150 police officers and 46 courts issued search orders. The arrests were made in Madrid, Barcelona, the Balearic Islands, Valencia, Zaragoza, Alicante, La Riooja, Cantabria, Almeria, Burgos, Murcia, Teruel, A Coruña, Pontevedra, Lleida, Girona, Guipuzcoa, Tenerife, Cadiz, Tarragona, Vizcaya, Leon, Valladolid, Huelva, Toledo, Sevilla, Malaga and Ciudad Real.

A further three men are under investigation but have not yet been arrested, the police force said.