French police announced on Monday the arrest of 37 people as a result of a large-scale anti-child pornography operation in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté and Grand Est regions.
According to the French newspaper La Dépêche, the operation, which began in November, seized over a million picture and video files of child pornography from computers, tablets, smartphones, and even cameras.
During four of the raids in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté and Grand Est departments, weapons and narcotics were also discovered by the police.
The National Gendarmerie, a French police force tasked — among its other roles — with combatting cybercrime, said that 32 of the 37 suspects have already been convicted.
All suspects were accused of “broadcasting or downloading videos and images of a child pornography nature”.
A total of 270 gendarmes, including 36 cybercrime specialist investigators, took place in the raids.
A similar operation was conducted in March of 2023 when 17 people were arrested on suspicion of downloading and distributing child pornography in the Grand Est region.
More recently, an international operation led to the arrests of 95 people in France in December in connection to a cross-border child pornography ring.
Police seized hundreds of devices with an estimated 375,000 photos and 156,000 videos of child pornography, or around 217 terabytes of data.
Those arrested last month included a youth organisation director, a sports instructor, and a deputy mayor.
Last year, France increased penalties for hosting child pornography on the internet. The Sécurité et Régulation de l’Espace Numérique (SREN) law mandated that websites remove child porn content within 24 hours of being notified by the police or gendarmerie or face up to a year in prison and a fine of 250,000 euros.
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