MONTREAL – Police announced Thursday the arrest of 28 men in Canada’s Quebec province for possession, distribution and accessing child pornography.
Officials told a press conference that there was no evidence the suspects, aged 21 to 68 years, who were arrested across the province this week, were linked.
The arrests were part of a single probe of online child pornography by a Surete du Quebec taskforce that also included several local police forces.
Authorities seized a dozen computer hard drives, 39 USB keys and other materials.
One of more than 40 children in the graphic images has so far been identified – a five-year boy, police said.
The announcement comes just one week after Canadian police said they had broken up a global child porn ring based in Toronto, with the arrest of 341 people and rescue of 386 sexually-abused children worldwide.