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- Title: BULGARIA: Bulgaria busts international child porn ring
- Date: 3rd December 2005
- Summary: VARIOUS OF POLICE SEARCHING COMPUTER AND CDS
- Embargoed: 18th December 2005 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Bulgaria
- Country: Bulgaria
- Reuters ID: LVA3M8J6J5TVUG90HA6NKIEYAJ5G
- Story Text: Bulgarian police detained six people and said they expected more arrests in other countries on Friday (December 2) after uncovering an international child pornography ring.
Officials raided apartments and an Internet provider in Sofia and the central town of Plovdiv, seizing a database containing scenes of violence and sexual abuse against children, the Interior Ministry said.
Some victims were visibly drugged.
Police, working with the U.S. FBI, seized films, CD-Roms and more than 30,000 pornographic photos taken in former Soviet bloc countries and the Far East, the ministry said.
They said men between the ages of 25 and 30 had set up a large database with photographs, clips and movies with paedophilic content.
Their victims were children -- girls and boys between three and 12 years old.
The ministry said officials were pursuing others who had used the database, which was exchanged between members of the ring and was also offered for sale over the Internet.
Experts say global cybercrime generated more revenue than drug trafficking last year and is set to grow even further as access to technology grows in developing countries.
Bulgaria, a poor Black Sea country of eight million people, has drawn fire from the European Union for failing to stop criminal gangs involved in drug and people smuggling, prostitution, and other crimes from their territory.
It plans to join the wealthy bloc in 2007, but Brussels has warned it will delay accession by a year if Sofia fails to solve the problem. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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