Canadian police have arrested nine suspects across the country in an international child abuse probe, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said Tuesday.
The probe, code-named "Operation Koala," involved videos of children being abused that were filmed mainly in a Ukraine studio and purchased from the Internet by customers around the world, including Canada, said RCMP Supt. Earla-Kim McColl, head of the National Child Exploitation Co-ordination Center at a news conference in Ottawa Tuesday.
"They sought it out, they previewed the samples, they paid in advance and they waited for a password to download the videos," said McColl.
More than 92 people have been arrested in Europe as part of the investigation.
About 50 cases in Canada are still under investigation and more suspects are expected to be arrested, McColl said.
The investigation began when a video depicting the rape of two young girls was found on July 12, 2006. That eventually led to the arrest of an Italian man, Sergio Marzola, who allegedly produced more than 150 child abuse and pornography videos that he sold via the Internet. Source:Xinhua
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