'A priest, a paramedic and a music teacher': France detains 55 men in paedophile ring crackdown
Fifty-five men have been arrested in France this week as part of an operation to dismantle a suspected paedophile ring operating via the Telegram messaging app, authorities said Thursday.
The arrests took place in 42 departments over possession, distribution and regular viewing of pornography involving children "under the age of 10", France's OFMIN, an office tasked with preventing violence against minors, told AFP.
The arrests, which followed a ten-month investigation, took place from Monday to Thursday. The suspects, aged 25 to 75, include a priest, a paramedic and a music teacher.
The men exchanged messages on Telegram and were in contact with "extremely dangerous" paedophiles who have been in prison since last summer, Quentin Bevan, head of the OFMIN's operational unit, told AFP.
The large-scale operation began last summer with the arrest of individuals suspected of abusing children and posting images on Telegram.
"It took ten months of investigation to track down these child abusers," Bevan said. "Ten months of undercover work involving thousands of exchanges, analysis and detection of paedophile images by a task force set up at the OFMIN."
The office issued the warrant that led to the arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov in Paris in 2024, and he remains under formal investigation by French authorities over illegal content on the popular service.
After days of questioning, Durov was charged with several counts of failing to curb extremist and terrorist content.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hindustan Times
3 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
US agents arrest two migrants at NY courthouse
US agents pounced on two immigrants in the hallway of a New York courthouse Friday, wrestling them to the ground in a forceful display of President Donald Trump's crackdown on people without papers. The two men had just attended a scheduled hearing when plainclothes Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, some wearing black face masks, grabbed them. The officers yelled for the men not to move or put up resistance and forced them to lay face-down on the ground as they tied their hands behind their backs and arrested them. The immigrants were then whisked away into an elevator on the 12th floor of the Jacob K Javitz Federal Building in Manhattan. The routine appointment they hoped would be a step toward life in America ended in shock and detention. AFP was on hand to witness these events because there was a similar arrest at the same courthouse earlier in the week and the agency suspected more might be imminent. It was not immediately clear exactly why these two men were arrested nor the fate that awaits them. Trump was elected to a second term largely on a promise to be crack down hard on the entry and presence of undocumented migrants and Americans largely support the idea. But polls show they also find tactics like surprise courthouse arrests by agents with black masks to be harsh. In recent weeks ICE agents have intensified operations like this in and around American immigration courts. After Trump swept back into power in January, the Department of Homeland Security revoked regulations that limited agents' access to protected areas like the courts. One of the men arrested was a 34-year-old Dominican named Joaquin Rosario who arrived in the United States a year ago, registered with authorities as he came in, and had his first immigration hearing Friday, said a relative of his, Julian Rosario, who declined to say how they were related. "He was at ease. He did not think anything was going to happen," said the relative, who was still visibly upset by what he had witnessed as agents threw the other man to the ground. Rosario was so unworried he did not even bother to have a lawyer with him, the relative said. The other detainee looked to be Asian. He arrived on his own and was accompanied by one of many immigration advocacy group volunteers who walk with such immigrants to and from the courtroom. The idea is to make them feel safe. This time the volunteers screamed out as the agents arrested the two men but this did nothing to halt the raid. Before this arrest other immigrants with appointments, including entire families, came and went with no problem. A pair of Venezuelans who refused to give their names were jubilant because their next appointment is not until 2027 that's how backlogged the US immigration court system is. Human rights groups are outraged by these operations, arguing that they sap trust in the courts and make immigrants wary of showing up for appointments as they try to gain US residency. "They're illegal abductions," said Karen Ortiz, herself a court employee who was demonstrating Friday against these sudden arrests of migrants. "We need to sound the alarm and show the public how serious this is and one way we can do that is actually physically putting ourselves between a masked ICE agent and someone they're trying to detain and send away," Ortiz told AFP. Since returning to power Trump has dramatically tested the limits of executive power as he cracked down on foreigners without papers, arguing that the United States is being invaded by criminals and other undesirables. af/dg/dw/sla
Time of India
5 hours ago
- Time of India
Hamas' FIERY Attack On IDF After Netanyahu's Gaza Gang Admission: '5 Israeli Troops Killed In 1 Hit'
Hamas appeared to make Israeli soldiers pay a heavy price on Friday after Benjamin Netanyahu admitted that the Jewish state was arming gangs to oppose the Palestinian militant group in Gaza. The Resistance News Network said on Telegram that 2 'major security incidents' took place in Khan Younis. In one such incident, a booby-trapped building targeting 'enemy soldiers' was blown up. The attack reportedly resulted in the death of 5 soldiers and injured over 12 more. RNN shared a video showing Israeli helicopters arriving to transport the casualties in Gaza. Meanwhile, Hamas ally Al-Quds Brigades shared a video of an attack in Beit Lahia. Watch. Read More
News18
8 hours ago
- News18
Japan Spots Chinese Vessel Beyond "First Island Chain", US-Philippines Hold Drill in South China Sea
More from world Trump And Musk's Spectacular Split Minute-By-Minute: How President & First Buddy's Friendship Ended Booby-Trap Kills 4 IDF Soldiers, Bibi Admits Arming Anti-Hamas Gaza Gang, French "Genocide" Probe "Nuclear Dust Would Have Blown..." Trump Takes India-Pak Truce Credit, Russia Hails "Involvement" US Sanctions Four ICC Judges Over Israel-US Probes, UN, EU Fume As Court's Independence 'Undermined'
