Operation "Armageddon": Serbian police arrested seven people for pedophilia

The Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade, the Special Department for Combating High-Tech Crime in cooperation with police officers of the Directorate for Technology, the The High Tech Crime Unit and police officers from the police departments of Smederevo, Pirot, Šabac, Leskovac, Tutin, Vranje and Bor, on May 21, 2024, seven (7) persons from the territory of the Republic of Serbia were deprived of their freedom.

The following were arrested:

1. M.C. (1958) from Šabac,

2. N.B. (2000) from Pirot,

3. P.S. (1999) from Leskovac,

4. M.A (1980) from Tutin,

5. P.D. (2000) from Smederevo,

6. L.L. (1995) from Vranje,

7. M.M. (1993) from Negotin,.

They are suspected of having committed the criminal acts of displaying, obtaining and possessing pornographic material and exploiting a minor for pornography under Art. 185 and Sexual harassment from Art. 182a of the Criminal Code of RS, in such a way that over a long period of time, via the Internet, they downloaded, stored and shared content created by exploiting children for pornographic purposes, as well as through social networks from their fake accounts, they entered into communication with minors, sent photos and videos records of pornographic content and obtained content resulting from the exploitation of a minor.

During the search of the apartments of the suspects, through inspection of the computers and computer equipment, photographs and videos were found of the sexual exploitation of children, in most cases between the ages of 6 and 10, but also under the age of 2.

Messages were also found in which the suspects sexually harassed children and minors, that is, asked them to send them pictures and videos in which they were naked.

The implementation of this operation continued the proactive action of the Special Department for VTK and the Ministry of Internal Affairs to identify persons associated with the sexual exploitation of children on the Internet, as well as successful cooperation with the platform of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) from the USA and Interpol, all with the aim of continuous protection of children and minors.

Six suspects were detained for up to 48 hours and, within the legal term, they will be brought to the Special Department for the Fight against VTK, VJT in Belgrade, while one person will be charged in the regular procedure.