International authorities are working together to take down the circle of child pornography funded by cryptocurrency
The Spanish National Guard has dismantled a dark web child pornography ring that USES cryptocurrency to trade and pay for content. Eventually, several arrests were made across the country.
According to the Spanish National Guard, operation Jekyll captured the three people involved in the “Welcome 2 Video” platform, in part because of additional support from the Us authorities.
Bitcoin and “Anonymous Tokens”
Users will send Bitcoin (BTC) and “other tokens or anonymous money transfer services” to access videos on dark sites. Members are also rewarded for uploading videos and photos of themselves to the platform.
Analysis of thousands of encrypted transactions eventually led to arrests related to the site.
In operation Kugantxu, police arrested a man in Bilbao, Spain, on charges of buying child pornography and paying for a streaming service, where minors were live-streamed or raped on demand. The site’s name was not disclosed.
The site is said to be run by individuals in the Philippines, according to the National Guard. Once the Country’s Transnational Crime Investigation Unit is alerted, it will eventually be able to identify the author of the content.
Another operation, known as Kiru, led to the arrest of a Madrid man accused of sexually abusing a 16-year-old girl, the suspect’s stepdaughter.
International action to combat child pornography
The massive police operation identified 20 people in the United States, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama and Peru.
On June 2, a South Korean court ordered a freeze on all cryptocurrency wallets, securities deposits and stock accounts owned by Cho Ju-bin, head of the Nth Room. NthRoom, a cable channel that is investigating the spread of child pornography, is suspected of being the cable channel.
Since then, experts have claimed that investigators in the NTH Room case may have difficulty identifying users using encrypted payments.
