New Zealand-led probe uncovers online child abuse network

Investigators identified some 90,000 online accounts that had possessed or traded the shocking abuse images, authorities said. — AP

THE HAGUE, Netherlands: A long-running global investigation into child abuse images shared online has led to the arrests of dozens of suspects in New Zealand and the safeguarding of 146 children around the world, New Zealand authorities and the European Union police agency Europol said on March 2.

New Zealand authorities said in a statement that the child abuse material “is some of the most egregious investigators have been exposed to. Many of the children featured in the images and videos were just infants who were exposed to obvious and intentional pain and suffering.”