The case of the two WhatsApp groups in Gipuzkoa in which pornographic and pedophile material was sent to a thousand minors, between 10 and 17 years old, shook this territory at the end of November, although the investigation fled from the first moment from the media spotlight and followed maximum discretion. Three and a half months later, the investigation has resulted in the arrest of a total of 12 people, including a 14-year-old minor who was the alleged ringleader.

This operation started in November, after a complaint from the families of several minors who had been included in one of the two WhatsApp groups. These families warned that their children were receiving pedophile material, after being added to the aforementioned groups without their authorization. The first cases were detected in the Basque Country, although it was later learned that the groups included young people from all over Spain.

Now, after three months of investigation, agents from the Civil Guard and the National Police have arrested 12 people in the towns of San Sebastián (Gipuzkoa), Pamplona (Navarra), Toledo, Dos Hermanas (Seville) and Madrid.

Among those detained is a 14-year-old minor who, allegedly, managed from his home in San Sebastián the “main computer” from which “the criminal actions were initiated and energized,” as well as a mobile phone also used for the dissemination and “multiple high-intensity video and photo files where babies, prepubescent children and minors were used with explicit sex with adults and other minors,” according to investigation sources.

The young man was allegedly maintaining a simultaneous conversation with one hundred profiles on a well-known social network, distributing pedophile material through a computer program created ‘ad hoc’, as reported by the Civil Guard in a statement. Likewise, several mobile terminals have been intervened to disseminate pedophile content obtained from the Deep Web (the hidden Internet).

As reported by the Civil Guard in a note, pornographic content, as well as hate, racist, homophobic and fascist messages, were distributed through the WhatsApp groups in which young people participated.

At first, it was the educational centers that alerted parents through circulars of the messages that minors were receiving. Days later, the Civil Guard received a first complaint at the Tres Cantos Civil Guard Post (Madrid), which was followed by four more, in which minors were added to the groups without their authorization and with whom shared pedophile material.

According to police sources, the Technological Investigation Team and the Minor Women’s Team of the Organic Unit of the Judicial Police of the Madrid Civil Guard took charge of the investigation within the framework of ‘operation Chapela’. In this way, it was possible to know who the instigators of these messages were and the origin of the files, in order to proceed with the dismantling of these groups.

For its part, the National Police opened an investigation into similar events reported in its area in Madrid, within the framework of “Operation Savali.” Since these were the same criminal acts, we proceeded to work in a coordinated manner to try to clarify the events described as quickly as possible.

The analysis of the data provided by the victims made it possible to determine that all the dissemination groups had practically identical names, such as “add everyone to make it go viral” or “add all the contacts you have”, which were created between November 2023 and November 14, 2023.

The technological research specialists managed to identify the people who were behind the ‘nicks’ in charge of dissemination. The investigation has been directed by the head of the Investigative Court number 4 of Colmenar Viejo (Madrid).