Two Men Jailed for Child Pornography

The guarantee judges Irma Palacios and Meylin Jaén validated agreements of sentences of 80 and 84 months in prison for two men detained within an operation carried out between nine countries against child pornography.  Both defendants were arrested last Tuesday, May 7, within the so-called international operation Allies for Children III, in which nine countries participated, and in which a criminal network dedicated to the dissemination of child pornography was dismantled.  During hearings held Friday, both judges validated sentencing agreements for the two defendants, after during a series of raids carried out in Betania, Río Abajo and Chilibre, computers were located on which pornographic material in which minors appeared had been downloaded.  In the investigation by the Sexual Crimes Prosecutor’s Office, it was established that both defendants kept the pornographic material and then shared it with other users on the network. 

In the review of the computer equipment carried out by officials of the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences (Imelcf) it was established that the IP addresses of the accused were constantly downloading pornographic material related to minors.  The operation was carried out simultaneously in Costa Rica, Ecuador, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Germany and Argentina.  According to the investigations, the pornographic material was received from Europe and distributed through protected websites to avoid surveillance by the authorities.  The investigation began in 2023, when the Public Ministry was alerted about a network dedicated to the dissemination of child pornography that operated in various parts of the world.  In this investigation, the authorities also managed to locate several firearms in a residence in Betania. Among the weapons seized were several assault rifles and pistols.