Nearly 100 people in the United States and Australia have so far been arrested over child sex abuse allegations after the fatal shooting of two FBI agents led to the unraveling of a suspected international pedophile ring, officials announced Tuesday.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) said that 19 men had been arrested for allegedly sharing child-abuse material online, while at least 13 children were rescued from further harm as a result of a joint operation with the FBI, dubbed "Operation Bakis."
The development brought the total number of people arrested as part of the joint probe up to 98, with at least 79 arrests so far carried out by the FBI in the U.S. FBI, according to the AFP.
Special Agents Daniel Alfin and Laura Schwartzenberger were fatally shot in 2021 while executing a search warrant in Sunrise, Florida, for a man suspected of being in possession of child abuse material.
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The AFP said the coordinated probe was formally launched in 2022 after the FBI provided the AFP-led Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation with intelligence about Australian individuals suspected of being part of a "peer-to-peer network allegedly sharing child abuse material on the dark web."
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