The German Federal Police announced today that they have shut down “one of the world’s largest darknet child pornography platforms” and have launched a series of raids in mid-April to arrest four members.
According to a German police statement, the darknet platform, called Boystown, has been around since 2019 and has more than 400,000 members, “set up to exchange child pornography worldwide.
The statement said the dark web forum provided a conduit for users to connect with each other and allow them to exchange child pornography and video content, which even included “serious sexual abuse of young children”.
German police launched a total of seven related raids in the country, arresting three men between the ages of 40 and 64. Another German male suspect has been detained in the South American country of Paraguay at the request of Berlin, pending the issuance of an international arrest warrant for his repatriation by a German court in Frankfurt.
German police said three of the men are accused of running the platform as administrators, providing technical support and teaching members how to avoid detection by authorities; the other man is “one of the most active users of the platform.
Investigators said the arrests, which were initiated in Germany and lasted several months, were coordinated and directed by Europol, with support from law enforcement authorities in the Netherlands, Sweden, the United States and Canada.
Following the raid, the network, including Boys Town and other related online forums, was removed from the network.
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