Operation 'Fly Trap': child pornography network on Telegram dismantled

A complex investigative activity launched in 2024 as part of the 'Fly Trap' operation of the State Police, coordinated by the District Anti-Mafia Directorate of the Public Prosecutor's Office at the Court of Rome and conducted by the National Center for combating online child pornography of the Postal Police and Cyber Security Service, led to the execution of 6 precautionary measures, the arrest of a crime suspect and the arrest of 10 people in flagrancy of crime for the possession of a large quantity of child pornography material, after 23 local, personal and computer searches ordered by the Public Prosecutor's Office against the subjects under investigation, both as administrators and simple members, of the criminal association aimed at the detention, trade, dissemination and advertising of large quantities of child pornography material which is the subject of this investigation.

The investigations were launched by the Postal Police in 2024 following information shared, in the context of international cooperation, by the US Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agency relating to the presence on Telegram of a private group called 'New Saga', dedicated to the dissemination of child pornography. The investigative activities carried out and the analysis of the cryptocurrency transactions used to access the community made it possible to identify one of the administrators, a twenty-four year old from Campania, who was then subjected to a personal, local and IT search in May 2024 and to start a complex activity carried out in an undercover manner.

“A trade unworthy of minors”. Rome's chief prosecutor, Francesco Lo Voi, said this during a press conference in the offices in Piazzale Clodio to illustrate the results of the investigation which led to the arrest of 17 people accused of being part of an organization dedicated to the online dissemination of child pornography material.

"It was a particularly important investigation, not only for the numbers. What we discovered was an organization with a structure comparable to a multinational company and with key figures who carried out administrator functions", explained the head of the capital's investigators, stating that "the ability of an agent who managed to infiltrate this organization and gain the trust of the organization to the point of also becoming an administrator" of the group was decisive, added Lo Voi.

"A horrendous criminal phenomenon" emerged - he continued - where "the organization had over a thousand users around the world, of which over 20 in Italy, who paid with cryptocurrencies to access the contents", from 3 to 9 dollars per month. The "disheartening news is the news regarding the young age of the members of the organization and the ability to generate money for this horrendous criminal phenomenon" highlighted Lo Voi.