Canadian police have arrested 57 people in a massive, nationwide dragnet effort against Canadian child pornographers, known as Project Salvo. According to the Calgary Herald:
Police said Project Salvo, the largest combined effort to investigate Internet-based child sexual abuse in Canada, has led to the arrest of 57 people across the country. One of the arrests were carried out in Calgary, officials said. Other arrests in Alberta include one each in Medicine Hat and Blairmore. The other arrest was in the Edmonton area.
None of the suspects have been formally charged or identified.
Project Salvo, developed by the National Child Exploitation Coordination Centre, focused on the web child pornography trade. That includes monitoring child porn users and the environments or forums they use to communicate with each other online.
Shockingly, CBC News reports that one of the 57 arrested is a 13 year-old boy, whose house was searched and who will have to be processed under Canada's Youth Criminal Justice Act. Also from CBC:
Police said new investigative technologies played a large role in the operation.
"We're dealing with a dark side of human behaviour, so to wipe that out completely is impossible," said Lianna McDonald, director of the Canadian Centre for Child Protection.
"But law enforcement is prioritizing this and we are having success," she said.