Police in Cologne, Germany, announced Wednesday that they had identified 439 suspected members of a nationwide pedophile ring over a two-year investigation.
The investigation initiated in 2019 by the Cologne prosecutor’s office also identified 65 minors between the ages of one and 17 who would have been victims of the network.
"We have identified suspects from all walks of life", detailed the head of the research group Michael Esser during a press conference. "People who made a good living and highly educated people", as well as "common people".
According to the investigators, in most cases, the suspects acted in the closest family environment.
Justice has already issued 13 convictions for this investigation, including a 12-year prison sentence in October 2020 against the leader of the network.
This is Jörg L., in his 40s, accused of dozens of sexual abuse of minors, rapes and dissemination of child pornography.
Most of the crimes were against his daughter, born in 2017, and who would have been regularly abused since she was three months old in the absence of her mother. His arrest in 2019 made it possible to dismantle the vast pedophile network.
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