Valencia Police Catch a Darknet Child Pornography Downloader

Agents of the National Police Force (Cuerpo Nacional de Policía) arrested a 34-year-old suspected of owning child pornography in Valencia, Spain. By currently unknown and undocumented means, officers located a computer filled with child pornography. According to the Provincial Police of Valencia, the National Police Force made the taskforce aware “of computer files of sexual content in a computer tower.” That “computer tower,” the officer explained, contained both child pornography and evidence that pointed towards the sexual exploitation and corruption of minors.

Based on the evidence provided by the NCB, the Provincial Police of Valencia (Policia Local de Valencia) conducted a full investigation. The police spokesperson told a news outlet that the police station independently corroborated the NCB’s evidence. They, the Provincial Police discovered that the 34-year-old ran his illegal searches through the Tor network, for the most part. However, the officer pointed to evidence that indicated the suspect operated his own forum or file sharing site where Police discovered the content.

Here an office described the network:

“After finding that the tower had numerous computer files of explicit sexual content and child pornography, police investigated the material and found that the user was using a shortcut network consisting of tools and software that helps use the internet anonymously and without a trace , hiding the origin and destination of all traffic generated without revealing IP addresses, while maintaining the confidentiality of information traveling through it.”

According to sources, one site writes, the suspect used “what is called the “’deepweb.’” The source continued, explaining that the deepweb “covers content that is not part of the surface. Meaning that it finds data not found by traditional searches with common search engines.”

He explained that criminals usually use Tor or similar software for illegal actives to keep your identity private.

Through, again, undocumented measures, Police officers de-anonymized the suspect. At that point, they found that he, at the minimum, viewed and distributed the illegal material. After obtaining “proper verification,” the Provincial Police raided the man’s home.

As of the January 3, 2017, the suspect’s name remained confidential. His age—34-years-old—and the fact that he came from a Spanish descent summed up the personal identity of the man. According to a source, the suspect came up clean upon a background check and never violated the law prior to now.

Police seized computers, many USB storage drives, several memory cards, a mobile phone, an iPad, and assorted DVDs. According to the officer, additional pieces of evidence are in for to be analyzed by the NCB. He never disclosed the identity of the “additional items” but the NCB lab is often used for decrypting media that proved too difficult for the local police.

The suspect has a court date scheduled for the first week of January 2017. Currently, officers charged him with the perpetration of sexual exploitation and corruption of minors.