A 71-year-old former police officer has been arrested at his home in the City neighborhood of Flores amid allegations he participated in the creation and distribution of child pornography.
Uniformed officers removed a number of computers, mobile phones, filming equipment hard drives and sex toys from the property as part of a raid. Evidence was also found he had stalked many of his victims online. Two guns were also discovered.
The septuagenarian, who remains unnamed after prosecutors opted not to identify him, has been arrested under the framework of an operation by the Cybercrime Department of the City Police, which also carried out seven other raids simultaneously across the capital and parts of Buenos Aires Province.
The investigation into the alleged crimes began last March, when the former police officer took his computer to a shop, asking them to back-up his files. Upon discovering the material, staff at the stop notified their local police station.
Questioned before the judge in charge of the investigation, Darío Bonano, the accused refused to testify. He was subsequently charged with grooming and the corruption of minors, as well as being a member of an illegal association that caused harm to minors.
According to the Noticias Argentinas news agency, it is suspected that a large number of minors may have been the victims of crimes.
Investigators say the man distributed videos and photographs of as many of 1,200 children without clothes, with many of them featuring scenes of sexual content. They also believe that some of the scenes were recorded at the former police officer's home in Flores and could date back to the year 2000, with children between the ages of four months and 14 years old featured.
In addition, the investigators believe they have identified six other homes, of family members and people with whom the accused was linked, in the media.
Among those people, judicial sources told Noticias Argentinas, there were some youngsters who have gone from victim to victimisers, exploiting children in the same way they themselves once were.
Other properties were raided in Flores, Versalles, Escobar, González Catán and Trenque Lauquen.
- TIMES/NA
Comments