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The central and contact point Cybercrime North Rhine-Westphalia is located at the Cologne Public Prosecutor's Office
Photo: Oliver Berg / picture alliance / dpa
Investigators searched the premises of 73 suspects in North Rhine-Westphalia on suspicion of possession and distribution of child pornography.
The nationwide operation began on February 25, the public prosecutor in Cologne announced.
In the meantime it has ended.
54 objects have been searched and so far 440 data carriers have been secured.
In addition, the emergency services encountered indications of violations of the Narcotics and Weapons Act.
Individual suspects have already confessed.
Arrest warrants were not carried out.
"The search measures are all directed against suspects who are said to have obtained child pornographic content for themselves or others primarily via social networks," the investigators said.
There were searches in Aachen, Bochum, Bonn, Castrop-Rauxel, Dortmund, Düsseldorf, Eschweiler, Herzogenrath, Höxter, Cologne, Krefeld, Leichlingen, Monheim am Rhein, Siegen and Wuppertal.
It was arranged by the central and contact point Cybercrime North Rhine-Westphalia (ZAC NRW) based in Cologne.
The current investigations are not related to the Bergisch Gladbach and Münster abuse complexes, as the public prosecutor further announced.
As a result, they are largely based on communications from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) - an organization from the USA that receives reports relating to criminal offenses against children and forwards them to the relevant authorities.
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bbr / dpa / AFP
