The Civil Guard, within the framework of the so-called "Biscottu" operation, has arrested in Murcia a sexual cyber-predator who deceived girls to obtain child pornographic material. He is a 22-year-old man who is believed to have committed the crimes of displaying pornographic material to minors, sexually assaulting a minor under 16 years of age with carnal access, and recruiting and using minors for the production of pornographic material.
The detainee pretended to be a girl of similar age and managed to gain the confidence of the minors to later interact with them through the messaging application "Zangi". There he convinced them to send him sexual content in exchange for virtual currency.
This deception allowed him to obtain illicit material from the little ones, who did not sense the sexual nature of what was requested. Once he had the videos in his possession, he prepared and edited them to exchange for others in closed paedophilia groups located on the deep web.
The investigation began in November 2023 after the complaint filed with the Organic Judicial Police Unit of the Civil Guard in Logroño -La Rioja- by the parents of two children under 9 years old. In their story, they said that after reviewing the computer equipment used by their daughters, they discovered that the minors had sent image and video files to a stranger, naked and performing intimate touches. Faced with this situation, agents of the Woman-Minor Team -EMUME- of the Civil Guard in La Rioja took charge of the proceedings.
Sexting
The researchers, following an analysis of the girls’ electronic devices, found that they were facing a case of online sexual solicitation of minors, known as “sexting,” carried out by a computer-savvy paedophile to cover up their criminal activity and avoid being discovered.
The cyber-predator, identified under the pseudonym "Galletita" on an online gaming platform, had established a prolonged relationship with minors through deception and abuse of superiority. Once they were duped and won their trust, he convinced them to install the application "Zangi" to interact with them with more privacy, calling himself "Alice your patron".
In this way he managed to get the girls to consider their requests to send him sex videos as something normal. To do so, he sent them 108 videos of child pornography, instructing them to imitate the same positions, in exchange for virtual currency for video games. According to the number of videos, the length of time and the aberrant postures that it requested, they were paid between 80 and 1,000 virtual coins.
With the progress of the investigation, the agents were able to determine that it was hiding in Murcia, so they moved to the aforementioned locality to carry out their arrest and the registration of two homes, where more than 2 Terabytes of information stored in the cloud and in various computer supports, such as hard drives, pendrives, memory cards, whose capacity allows to house more than 400,000 files of this type.
300 videos of minors
The first analyses carried out have determined "inescapably" that this individual is the person who interacted with the Riojan victims. At the moment and until the end of the study, to all media, another 300 videos of child pornography have been found in which young boys and girls appear, which has triggered various actions to achieve their full identification.
The Court of Instruction No. 6 of Murcia has decreed the provisional, communicated and unbail admission of the detainee.
This operation has been carried out by the Woman-Minor Team (EMUME) of the Civil Guard in La Rioja and by Examining Court No. 2 of Logroño.
In the exploitation phase, agents of the Technological Crime Teams of Logroño and Murcia, computer area of the Criminalistics Service -Madrid-, central EMUME of the Technical Unit of the Judicial Police -Madrid- and agents of the USECIC of the Murcia Command have collaborated.
There are media layout images in the following link:
http://www.guardiacivil.es/es/prensa/videos_descarga_medios/2024/index.html
For further information, please contact the Peripheral Communication Office of the Civil Guard of La Rioja on 941 22 99 00, ext. 1010070.
Tips to help prevent online grooming and sexting and protect minors from potential online abuse situations
- Open communication: Maintain open and honest communication with your children about the safe use of the internet. Encourage them to talk to you if they feel uncomfortable or worried about an online interaction.
- Set limits: It sets clear limits on the use of the internet and social networks. Educate your children about what kind of information is safe to share online and what is not.
- Online Privacy: Teach your children to properly set up privacy in their social media profiles and messaging apps to limit the access of strangers to their personal information.
- Recognition of grooming signs: Teach them to recognize the common tactics used by groomers, such as emotional manipulation, gift giving, or soliciting personal information.
- Use of secure passwords: Help your children create secure passwords and not share them with anyone, except parents or guardians.
- Monitoring of online activities: Monitor your children’s online activities and keep track of who they are interacting with and what kind of content they are sharing.
- Know the applications and platforms used: Get familiar with the online apps and platforms your kids use, and make sure they’re safe and age-appropriate.
- Report suspicious behaviors: Teach your children to report any suspicious or inappropriate behavior online to a trusted adult, such as a parent, teacher, or authority figure.
- Online Security Education: Educate your children about online dangers and how to protect themselves, including the importance of not meeting with people they have met online without adult supervision.
- Use of parental control tools: It uses parental control tools to filter inappropriate content, monitor online activity and set screen time limits.