Police have arrested dozens of people across Europe in a Spanish-initiated sting operation against suspected users of child pornography.
In the operation, Polish police arrested 12 people in several cities, five remain in custody. Twenty-four people had been arrested in Spain.
"Operation Azahar was initiated by Spanish authorities and applied to every European Union member," said Barbara Makosa-Stepkowska, director of information at the Polish Justice Ministry. "
The February 21, 22 and 23 raids ... aimed to hit individuals with open pornographic files," she said.
She had no information on the total number of arrests.
Polish police alone confiscated 1,200 compact discs, 200 computer disks, 66 computers, one laptop, two computer servers and production equipment.
"We seized several hundred pictures and several dozen short films of a pornographic nature involving children of less than 15 years of age," Polish PAP news agency quoted police spokesman Kamil Tomaszczuk as saying. "They included pictures involving animals."
The Spanish Interior Ministry said a Civil Guard Internet search engine, called Hispalis, contributed to cracking the ring, by making it possible to search 500 records of paedophiles in 19 countries.
Spain is now going to share its search engine with other police forces around the world to help the fight against child pornography, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.