Portugal’s Polícia Judiciária takes part in US operation against child sex exploitation
LISBON — Portugal’s Polícia Judiciária (PJ), the country’s criminal investigation police agency, was part of a special operation against child sexual exploitation conducted in the United States, from Feb. 26 and March 8, which resulted in the rescue of eight children from active abuse.
Conducted by the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Cyber Crimes Center’s (C3) Child Exploitation Investigations Unit, the “Renewed Hope II” operation combined the efforts of world’s leading experts in the investigation of online child sexual exploitation and abuse, as well as child victim identification to address cold case files.
“The exploitation of innocent children is a global issue that requires worldwide efforts to combat,” said Homeland Security Investigations Executive Associate Director Katrina W. Berger in a prepared statement. “HSI is committed to continuing our work with U.S. and international partners to identify and rescue victims while bringing to justice those criminals who exploit children.”
According to a U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement press release, the operation was the second of its kind held in the United States.
“HSI hosted international law enforcement agencies, who worked together on hundreds of cold cases involving previously unknown victims of online child sexual exploitation and abuse,” read the press release.
HSI and the partners analyzed more than 95,000 files comprised of 121 GB of data – the equivalent of about 64 hours of streamed video footage.
“The files contained previously seized unidentified images and video series of child sex abuse material, each series containing one to hundreds of images and videos, to identify children and offenders, along with the locations where the abuse occurred,” according to the press release.
The operation resulted in the development of more than 414 leads worldwide related to child sexual abuse.
“Analysts created lead packages for appropriate investigative partners in the furtherance of associated law enforcement actions,” according to the release.
International partners included 27 victim identification specialists from Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Croatia, Estonia, France, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, and United Kingdom.
This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Portuguese police takes part in US child sex exploitation operation
