More than 100 people were detained today across Brazil in what authorities said was the country's biggest ever crackdown on internet child pornography.
Some 2,600 police officers deployed across 24 of Brazil's 26 states and the capital to serve 578 arrest and search warrants related to online sexual exploitation of children and adolescents.
So far 132 people had been taken in, including teachers and public sector workers ranging from 20 years old to retirement age, the authorities told journalists in Brasilia. A million pieces of pedophile content were uncovered, officials said.
The operation, led by the newly formed public security ministry, "is without doubt the biggest of this kind in the country," said General Carlos Alberto dos Santos Cruz.
Security Minister Raul Jungmann said it was even "the biggest in the world to be carried out in a single day." A first phase of the operation, dubbed "Childhood's Light," took place in October 2017, in partnership with US authorities, and led to 112 arrests.