More than 70 police officers rang doorbells at a total of 23 addresses in different parts of Finland at 7:00 in the morning and seized computers found in the homes.
The raids were part of a coordinated operation against child pornography involving the police forces of the Nordic Countries.
The police were going after people suspected of possession and spreading of child pornography videos.
Police believe that the suspects downloaded illegal video files from online file sharing sites. However, Mika Ihaksinen of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) does not believe that the suspects form a ring of any kind.
“Their only link with each other is the same source. There is no evidence of any mutual contact”, he says.
Next, police face the task of looking for illegal files from the confiscated computers.
The content of the files will determine what crimes the users of the computers might be charged with. Some of the hardest-core material available is included, produced in places ranging from Eastern Europe to the Far East.
The raids came as a surprise to most of the suspects. However, Ihaksinen says that some had actually been expecting to be caught.
The suspects are mainly men aged 20 to 40, living in Southern and Central Finland. There have been no moves yet to remand anyone in custody.
Similar raids were conducted at the same time in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. A total of 81 addresses were visited.
Police say that Operation Viking was the result of intensified Nordic cooperation. It is based on investigation by Internet crime investigators conducted in May. Investigators collected information of computers that had downloaded illegal material from certain file sharing networks.
