Esta es la versión HTML de un fichero adjunto a una solicitud de acceso a la información 'Child Abuse Operations'.
















 
 
 
 
 
 
The Hague, 
09/12/11 
 
EDOC # 
582708-v1 
 
Unit O5 
 
Author 
[…] 
 
Phone 
[…] 
 
 
 
Speaking points  
Operation Icarus press conference 
 
Good morning, today we are meeting at Europol to report the results of 
a European operation against child sex offenders operating on the 
internet; 
 
Before giving you the details of this operation called “Icarus”, I would 
like to provide you with some background information about Europol’s 
involvement in this specific area; 
 
Europol widened its mandate in 2001 in order to, among other crime 
areas, start focusing on criminal networks involved in the production 
and dissemination of child abuse material; 
 
Throughout these years Europol has coordinated around 25 high impact 
operations in addition to isolated transnational cases; 
 
In particular some previous operations such as Koala and Rescue 
highlighted the prominent role of our organization in this particular field; 
 
With the partial conclusion of Operation Icarus today we are sending out 
a clear message of “zero tolerance” against all forms of child sexual 
exploitation with particular attention to those perpetrated through the 
use of information and communication technologies; 
 
Europol has since a long time committed to support the efforts of the 
law enforcement agencies in the Member States of the European Union 
and in the other partner countries; 
 
Operation Icarus is a remarkable initiative because it is part of the so 
called “CIRCAMP” (COSPOL Internet Related Child Abuse Material 
Project) which is a European project funded by the European 
Commission and supported by Europol and Interpol; 
 
In particular, CIRCAMP is currently led by Belgium (Belgian Federal 
Police) and, through its new action plan, several operations have been 
planned for the next two years with the support of Europol; 
This document may not be reproduced or transmitted, in whole or in part, in any form or by any means, 
whether electronic, mechanical, or otherwise, or stored in any retrieval system of any nature, without 
the express written permission of the author 








 
 
Operation Icarus is the first planned operation and it targeted internet 
users sharing child abusive material through a public file sharing 
system; 
 
The case was led by Denmark (in particular  the  National  High  Tech 
Crime Unit) who provided Europol with intelligence packages for 25 
European countries; 
 
Europol organized an operational meeting on 21 September 2011 in 
order to distribute the intelligence packages to the investigators and the 
liaison officers from the concerned countries. At the meeting it was also 
agreed that Europol would be in charge of the exchange of information 
and the collection of the results for analysis purposes; 
  
Europol guaranteed a fast and secure dissemination of the intelligence 
packages through the SIENA channel. In fact, in order to avoid 
problems related to data retention in some EU MS, Denmark performed 
the online investigation until a few days before the meeting and Europol 
disseminated all the packages to 25 involved countries within 24 hours; 
 
Europol is at this stage receiving the feedback from the participating 
countries where most of the house searches have been positive (i.e. 
child abuse material has been confiscated). This information is currently 
being cross-matched with the data contained in our databases in order 
to discover if these offenders are members of already existing criminal 
networks or of previously unknown groups; 
 
Europol will, on behalf of the sending country, also disseminate the child 
abuse material to Interpol for the inclusion in their International Child 
Sexual Exploitation Database, obviously when this has not been done by 
the country itself; 
 
Europol will finally address Eurojust in case judicial assistance is 
required; 
 
To date, 17 countries have reported positive results. So far 220 
suspects have been identified (101 being arrested or detained in police 
custody). It is still premature to obtain information about the 
identification of victims although, in some cases, it has been reported 
about the arrest of child sex molesters; 
 
Europol will continue supporting CIRCAMP for the possible development 
of new investigative threads originating from Icarus. The above figures 
are expected to grow in the next months. For this reason Europol will be 
in the position to provide an update of the case in the next months.   
 
To conclude I would like to thank the Danish National Police and the 
Belgian Federal Police for the trust devoted to my agency and for the 
This document may not be reproduced or transmitted, in whole or in part, in any form or by any means, 
whether electronic, mechanical, or otherwise, or stored in any retrieval system of any nature, without 
the express written permission of the author 








 
excellent cooperation that has once again allowed the discovery and the 
arrest of such a consistent number of child sex offenders. 
 
 
by 
Rob Wainwright,  
Director of EUROPOL 
 
 
 
Note 
 
So far 17* countries have reported positive results: 
 
Austria 
Belgium 
Bulgaria 
Cyprus 
Denmark 
Estonia 
Finland 
France 
Germany 
Ireland 
Luxembourg 
Norway 
Poland 
Slovakia 
Spain 
Sweden 
Switzerland 
 
Malta had one target but not actionable. 
Croatia reported negative results.  
 
 
*Provisional figure subject to change until the date of the press event 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
This document may not be reproduced or transmitted, in whole or in part, in any form or by any means, 
whether electronic, mechanical, or otherwise, or stored in any retrieval system of any nature, without 
the express written permission of the author