Taiwan's largest illegal porn ring busted, 449 arrested for crimes including child pornography
The porn rings were operating out of messaging platform Telegram (representative image)
Taiwanese law enforcement authorities have arrested 449 people after busting its largest illegal pornography ring. Those arrested engaged in making, selling, or possessing child pornography as well as recordings of women in restrooms. Out of those arrested, 178 were buyers of the explicit content.
At a news conference on Thursday (July 31), the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said that all arrested are Taiwanese but the forums were operated from overseas domains.
The arrests were made after a series of raids in June and July that targeted two porn rings, Chuangyi Sifang and SCP, which were operating through the messaging app Telegram.
Most of those detained were paid members of the networks, suspected of viewing and trading in illegal pornography, as well as uploading content.
The suspects include some teachers, software professionals andeven military personnel, CIB's High-tech Crime Center chief Lin Chien-lung was quoted as saying in Taipei Times.
The suspects were charged under Taiwan's Child and Youth Sexual Exploitation Prevention Act as well as laws against money laundering and organised crime, Lin told a news conference in Taipei.
Members paid in cryptocurrency and network tokens to join the porn ring, Lin said, adding that transactions were done in accounts as well as web domains registered overseas.
Chuangyi Sifang was raided after TV host Mickey Huang's indictment in May for allegedly possessing child pornography. Huang was reportedly a paid member of the network since 2014, reported Taipei Times citing the Taichung Prosecutors’ Office.
Police arrested a man surnamed Chang who was reportedly managing Chuangyi Sifang forum. The owner of the forum is thought to be Lao Ma, a Chinese citizen based in China, according to Taiwanese authorities. Currency worth US$30,454 was confiscated in the raid.
Another raid in July targeted SCP and its affiliate site OAT, where visuals of women in restrooms in public places, hotel restrooms and bars were shared.
(With inputs from agencies)
