Raid against pedocriminal dark web video platforms
Bavarian investigators have succeeded in a raid against two pedocriminal child pornography platforms on the dark web. They had 350,000 users.
A plaque from the law enforcement agencies now adorns the pedocriminal dark web sites.
(Image: Zentralstelle Cybercrime Bayern)
Bavarian law enforcement agencies have succeeded in a raid against two pedocriminal video platforms on the dark web. The dark websites were operated in data centers in Germany.
The Central Office for Cybercrime Bavaria (Zentralstelle Cybercrime Bayern) at the Bamberg Public Prosecutor General's Office and the Bavarian State Office of Criminal Investigation (Bayerisches Landeskriminalamt, BLKA) are now reporting the successful shutdown. This was an international cooperation in which the pedocriminal platforms “Videos Sebick” and “Videos Yad” were taken offline and their websites replaced with a seizure notice.
Abuse videos for cryptocurrency
The platforms were exclusively accessible on the dark web. For a monthly subscription fee of 0.001 Bitcoin, currently just under 100 Euros, full access to the offerings was granted. Some (few) videos could also be played for free. They sometimes show severe sexual abuse of children and adolescents.
More than 350,000 users were registered on the platforms, investigators report. The majority exclusively consumed the free videos. In total, the platforms hosted 21,324 video files with a total playback time of 660 hours. They were accessed a total of almost 900,000 times. The servers could be seized, shut down, and the sites replaced with a blocking banner. Since the files were exclusively stored on the servers in the data center, they could be secured and their further distribution prevented.
Videos by heise
While the dark websites were delivered from servers in German data centers, the investigators found a Peruvian citizen residing in Brazil as the operator during the server evaluation. In cooperation with the BKA and the Brazilian Federal Police, the suspect was arrested in September. He is currently in pretrial detention. He faces several years in prison under Brazilian law.
Now, in the ongoing investigations, buyers and consumers of the videos are also coming into focus. Individuals from European countries and Germany are also suspected of having used the child pornography platforms.
Law enforcement agencies repeatedly succeed in cracking down on pedocriminal networks. In April of this year, investigators, for example, busted the dark web platform “Kidflix” and arrested 79 suspects. The platform was significantly larger – it had around 1.8 million registered users.
(dmk)
