Police raid major child sexual abuse images ring in largest bust in Taiwan’s history

Nearly 450 people arrested and charged with possessing illegal pornography

Taiwanese investigators bust largest pornography racket with hundreds arrested (Criminal Investigation Bureau)

Police in Taiwan have busted a major child sex abuse ring involving hundreds of people, making it the largest raid on an illegal pornography racket in the island’s history.

The Criminal Investigation Bureau announced on Thursday that they have arrested 449 people suspected of possessing child sexual abuse images and videos of women filmed in restrooms without their knowledge. They said that nearly 180 subscribers paid in cryptocurrency and network tokens for the illegal material, with transactions managed through overseas accounts and domains, complicating efforts to shut them down.

The accused face charges of violating Taiwan’s Child and Youth Sexual Exploitation Prevention Act, money laundering, and engaging in organised crime, the bureau’s chief, Lin Chien-lung, said at a press conference.

They include teachers, civil servants, police officers, IT workers, and military personnel, according to local media reports. One of them, a man surnamed Chang, allegedly operated Chuangyi Sifang, Taiwan’s largest illegal pornography platform with thousands of subscribers, on behalf of its reported owner, Lao Ma, a Chinese citizen, according to the Taipei Times.

The racket also operated through another online platform and two Telegram groups. The material shared included sexual images of minors and teenagers and videos of women filmed in restrooms of public places.

Police seize computers, mobile phones, financial records, and cash worth £23,500 (Criminal Investigation Bureau)

The investigation into the racket began in May and raids were conducted in June and July across Taiwan.

Mr Chang and three of his assistants were “strongly suspected of committing crimes”, prosecutors said.

“A special task team was formed by the National Criminal Police Department and 350 police officers were mobilised to carry out two waves of synchronous sweep operations in 17 counties and cities across the country,” the bureau said on Facebook.

Investigators said that 16 people were charged in the case but released on bail.

Police seized computers, cellphones, financial records, and cash worth £23,500 in currencies from Taiwan, Hong Kong and China.

Rufus Lin, director of the Criminal Investigation Bureau’s high-tech crime centre, said that they faced difficulty shutting down the networks as they operated through overseas accounts and domains, despite being run from within Taiwan.

The racket operated through Telegram channels and two online platforms which shared sexual images of children and teenagers and videos of women (Criminal Investigation Bureau)

In the past, Taiwan’s government has faced criticism from women’s and children’s rights groups over lenient laws for possession of images showing child sex abuse.

There were calls to enforce tougher penalties when Taiwanese celebrity Mickey Huang Tzu-chiao was ordered to pay a fine of NT$1.2m (£30,000) and write an apology after seven videos featuring minors were found on his hard drive. In the aftermath, in 2023, the maximum prison sentence was increased from two years to three and the maximum fine doubled to NT$1m (£23,970).

Additionally, victims were allowed up to seven years to file a complaint instead of three.