Brazil Arrests Hundreds in Child Porn Operation

By Lise Alves, Senior Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Heralded as one of the largest anti-pedophile raids ever executed in the country, Brazilian authorities confiscated more than a million computer files, issued 579 warrants, and arrested 251 people in 24 states on Thursday as part of its Luz na Infancia 2 (Light in Childhood 2) operation.

“Our work to combat the sexual exploitation of children and adolescents does not stop,” said Brazilian President in his social media account, praising the operation which was led by by Public Security Minister Raul Jungmann.

The massive operation, whose first phase occurred in October of last year, investigated people who shared or stored content related to crimes of sexual exploitation against children and adolescents. More than 2,600 agents, from police to federal security officials, were involved in the operation.

At a press conference in Brasilia, Minister Jungmann said that more than 1 million computer files, including photos, videos and other documents, containing content related to crimes of sexual abuse of children and adolescents were analyzed before the raids.

“This was the largest integrated police operation conducted in Brazil, and the largest one-day operation to halt crimes of sexual exploitation and abuse of children in the world” said Jungmann.

Authorities say they confiscated more than 2,000 notebooks, hard drives, CDs, DVDs and pen drives containing violence and child pornography.

In São Paulo, the Department of Homicide and Protection of Individuals (DHPP), had 600 agents working on 166 targets of the operation. DHPP director Elisabete Sato stated that, in the state all those were arrested were men, most were married with children and in their 40s. Among those detained were doctors, lawyers, public servants, computer technicians and teachers.

“We can no longer tolerate these situations where extremely defenseless children have their images released in such an ostentatious way,” Sato told a government news agency.