Miembro de banda detenido en Móstoles por distribuir imágenes de abuso infantil generadas por IA

National Police agents, in an operation with Europol against child sexual exploitation, have collaborated in the arrest of 25 members of a criminal organization dedicated to distributing images of child abuse generated by artificial intelligence (AI).

As reported by the National Police this Friday, one of the 25 arrests took place in Móstoles.

A total of 33 home entries and searches have been carried out, 4 of them in Spain – in the provinces of Madrid, Barcelona, Jaén, and Málaga – and 173 electronic devices have been seized, 8 of them in our country containing 16,800 files.

«This is one of the first operations investigating material of child sexual abuse generated entirely by artificial intelligence,» they emphasized, adding that the operation is still ongoing, so new arrests are not ruled out.

The investigation began in 2024 with the arrest of a Danish citizen who operated an online platform through which AI-generated material was distributed.

Users worldwide, after making a symbolic online payment, could obtain a password to access the material on this platform where they could view abuses against minors.

Online child sexual exploitation remains one of the major threats of cybercrime in the European Union and continues to be a top priority for authorities facing an increasing volume of this illegal content.

In this context, the National Police explained that self-generated child sexual material constitutes a significant portion of what is detected, with criminals using AI models capable of generating or altering images to produce the material.