The crackdown was carried out by Poland’s Central Anti-Cyber Crime Bureau (CBZC), the country’s prosecution service and the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation Europol, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
Poland’s police chief Jarosław Szymczyk briefed reporters on the results of the operation at a news conference in Warsaw on Thursday.
After an intensive eight-week preparation, the crackdown was launched in late October, with 300 officers making 82 searches in 14 regions, reporters were told.
44 detained, 15,500 indecent photos and videos found
As a result, police detained 44 people aged between 18 and 44, according to officials.
CBZC chief Adam Cieślak told reporters: “We have secured 350 large-capacity data-storage devices containing at least 15,500 photos and video files showing sexual abuse of children, including preschool children and infants. But this is merely an initial estimate, because some of the materials were encrypted and some hard work still needs to be done.”
Cieślak added that "the arrests helped prevent two serious sexual crimes that had been planned."
Those detained have been charged with various crimes including production, preservation, storage and possession of child pornography for dissemination, which carries a prison sentence of between two and 12 years in Poland, officials said.
Poland sets up new anti-cyber crime force
Szymczyk said that the Polish police’s CBZC unit was launched in July to tackle cyber crime, from “organised attacks against IT networks” to “online theft and fraud,” as well as “sexual exploitation of children and the publication of such material online,” the PAP news agency reported.
The CBZC’s workforce is expected to reach 1,800, while the agency’s budget totals PLN 4.5 billion (EUR 960 million) over 10 years, Szymczyk added.
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Source: PAP, rmf24.pl, cbzc.policja.gov.pl