Overview
- Bavarian state investigators and Bamberg prosecutors shut two darknet platforms that hosted more than 21,000 child-abuse videos and had about 350,000 registered users.
- The platforms were traced to data centers in Germany, their servers were seized, and the sites were taken offline in September after roughly 900,000 accesses.
- Server analysis identified a 38-year-old suspected operator in Foz do Iguaçu, where Brazilian federal police arrested him; he remains in pretrial detention and faces several years under Brazilian law if convicted.
- All files were stored on the operator’s own server, enabling authorities to secure the material and prevent further distribution.
- Investigators are now prioritizing the identification of consumers and paid subscribers, including suspected users in Germany, with some accounts paying 0.001 Bitcoin per month for full access.