Spanish police said today they had undertaken a vast operation against child pornography across the country, arresting 81 men suspected of having exchanged sexual photos and videos of minors over the Internet.
Among those arrested were two minors and two people considered mentally handicapped, national police officials said in a statement.
The suspects had exchanged the pornographic photographs and videos of children online and "some of the images seized by police are extremely harsh and show sadism and bestiality," the statement said.
The child pornography investigation began with "cyber-patrols" on the Internet by specialised agents, who after about a year were able to identify dozens of suspects.
"The agents are continuing to analyse the material seized to determine if there have been crimes of producing child pornography, sexual abuse of minors or connection with paedophiles," police said.
Around 300 police participated in the raid across 28 provinces, searching the homes of the suspects and seizing, in addition to the images, equipment such as computers and photo and video cameras.
