A resident of Ripoll in Girona, Spain, was detained by the national police on suspicion of downloading and storing thousands of files containing child sexual abuse over a two-year period. The investigation began in December after authorities learned that a suspect was accumulating a vast archive of child pornography, raising concerns about ongoing exploitation and distribution of these harmful materials.
Authorities located the suspect in Ripoll and established that since September 2022 he had been repeatedly downloading illegal content in various formats, including videos and images. It is reported that he even captured screenshots of the material as he found it, building a personal collection that he stored on multiple devices and external storage units. This pattern suggested a deliberate and sustained attempt to preserve and amass exploitative material for potential later use or circulation.
During a search of the suspect’s home, investigators recovered four terabytes of files belonging to this category of material across two computers, one tablet, three mobile phones, and two hard drives. The devices are currently undergoing forensic analysis, and police do not rule out the possibility that additional incriminating files may be discovered. Some content may have been deleted or hidden to evade detection, a common challenge in digital investigations of this kind.
Law enforcement proceedings confirmed that many of the images depicted minors involved in acts that were forced, humiliating, and extremely cruel. The operation was conducted by the Girona unit of the National Police’s UDEV group, in collaboration with officers from Camprodon, another locality in the region. The case highlights the relentless efforts of authorities to trace, intercept, and dismantle networks that profit from the abuse of children, emphasizing the importance of rapid reporting, technological vigilance, and cross-agency cooperation in safeguarding vulnerable populations.