Brasilia, May 18 (IANS): In just one day, the Brazilian authorities went after 579 people on warrants for crimes of child pornography and sexual exploitation of minors.
The massive raid, the largest ever in Brazil, led to the arrest of 251 people on Thursday in the second phase of a nationwide Federal Police operation, Xinhua news agency reported.
The Operation Childhood Light which was first launched in October 2017, might see a furher rise in the number of arrests, as not even half of the 579 arrest warrants had been executed by the end of the day.
According to the police, the operation took place in 24 states and the capital city Brasilia. A total of 2,600 officers joined the operation. Most arrests were made in Sao Paulo and Rio areas.
The main target of the operation was arrested. He was in possession of 780,000 files containing child pornography.
In 2017, 112 people were arrested.