The police searched a total of eleven apartments in the fight against child pornography in Upper Bavaria. According to police, nine men and two women between the ages of 18 and 66 are suspected of possessing or distributing child pornography. According to a police spokesman, it was still unclear whether there was a connection between the accused.
During the searches in the Altötting and Mühldorf am Inn districts on Thursday, the officers confiscated, among other things, cell phones, laptops and other electronic devices. IT forensic experts are now evaluating the evidence. Last year, 697 cases of distribution of pornographic content were registered in the area of responsibility of the Upper Bavaria South Police Headquarters. According to the spokesman, the number also includes offenses related to child pornography. In 2022 there were 721 cases.
Despite this slight decrease, according to the police, this was still “far too high a value”. In previous years, the number of registered offenses in this area of crime had continued to rise, said the spokesman. Most of the tips about files containing child pornography come from an organization in the USA, the “National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC)”. The NCMEC reports criminal content, particularly child pornography, from the Internet worldwide. The organization reports crimes related to Germany to the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), which then informs the local investigative authorities. The spokesman could not say whether the current investigation was also triggered by information from the NCMEC.