The police are closing in on an online child ring. This follows the arrest of three alleged online child sexual predators in a joint operation by the South African Police Service and the USA Department of Homeland Security.
One of the men posed as a teenager to lure underage girls to a chat group, where child pornography was distributed and shared amongst the other two suspects.
This brings to total the number of online child sexual predators that have been arrested since November to seven.
The other four were arrested in November last year. Three were arrested in Gauteng and one in KwaZulu-Natal.
National Police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe says these arrests form part of an international operation to trace manufacturers, users, and distributors of child pornography.
Mathe says the three suspects were arrested in Worcester, Kraaifontein and Mitchell’s Plain.
She says, “A 53-year-old man from Worcester was the first to be arrested last week Wednesday. He was found with 95 000 images and 6 000 videos of child pornography. He faces a charge of accessing, distributing and possession of child pornography.”
“The second suspect, a 40-year-old man was arrested in Kraaifontein last week Thursday. He was found with more than 149 000 pictures of child pornography and more than 5000 videos. The suspect was also found in possession of two unlicensed firearms and various calibre of ammunition, as well as nine snakes of which three did not have a permit. He is facing charges of possession of illegal firearms and ammunition, possession, distribution and accessing of child pornography.”
Mathe says a 32-year-old man from Mitchell’s Plan was the third suspect to be arrested. He was arrested last week Friday and was found to be chatting and luring underage girls on chat group where nude pictures were exchanged.
VIDEO: Fourth suspect nabbed on child pornography allegations:
