Europa - News and Society

The Hague, the Netherlands

Today the joint Operation Atlantic, conducted by the US  Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and several EU Member States (MS), was  finalized under the coordination of Europol. After more than a year of  investigations in the Member States, 37 child sex offenders have been  identified. Among these offenders, 17 were arrested for child sexual  molestation and production of illegal content. Moreover, 8 victims have been  identified. In this respect, the investigation continues, to eventually  identify further victims.

The case was launched after an operational meeting was held in The Hague  between the FBI and Europol officers in November 2010. Intelligence gathered  by the FBI during a long and complex investigation was distributed by Europol  to France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK in December 2010.

Analysis carried out by Europol revealed further links of several suspects  to previous operations against child sex offenders. In this respect Europol  produced five reports relating to nine targets. In particular, two targets  were already members of the ‘Boylover’ network, tackled by the previous  Europol-coordinated Operation Rescue. The remaining seven targets were  members of other pedophile  networks, still under investigation. The above  investigative and reporting activities facilitated the identification process  in the EU countries which led to the detection of a network of offenders that  were producing and distributing images depicting the severe abuse of  children, in some cases toddlers and infants. The investigative activity also  led to the identification of child sex molesters and several victims who had  been sexually abused by these criminals.

In order to strengthen the cooperation and guarantee the effectiveness of  this case, the FBI seconded an investigator to the Europol Child Sexual  Exploitation Team for two months in the summer of 2011.     

Operation Atlantic has been the first joint operation conducted by the FBI  and Europol in the crime field of child sexual exploitation. The success of  this case was remarked upon by Europol’s Director, Rob Wainwright, who  said: “Collaboration and cooperation between Europol and our international  law enforcement partners such as the FBI is essential if we are to bring  these child sex abuse networks to justice and prevent the distribution of  child exploitation material across the internet. This is another excellent  result in this crime area and Europol is ready and willing to support ongoing  and future operations to infiltrate these networks.”

FBI Director Robert S. Mueller also remarked about the success of the  Atlantic case declaring that: “Online child predators and child  exploitation are not just an American problem. They are global problems. The  FBI is committed to working with our law enforcement partners around the  world, such as Europol, to combat these horrendous crimes. We share  actionable intelligence and resources to keep children safe and bring those  who do them harm to justice.”