Johannesburg - Police efforts to smash a child pornography ring operating both locally and internationally has led to the arrest of an 11th South African.
National police spokesperson Brigadier Vishnu Naidoo told The Star on Thursday morning that a 39-year-old Boksburg car salesman was arrested on Wednesday afternoon for possession of child pornography.
Over the past few months, the police have been investigating the South African wing of the paedophile ring that has members affiliated to it from across the globe.
And on Wednesday, the police nabbed the Boksburg man after establishing through a tip-off that there was child pornography on his laptop hard drive.
“Our specialised investigation team searched the car dealership, which is on the East Rand. We arrested him at his workplace and later raided his home,” Naidoo said.
He said three laptops, external hard drives, cellphones, memory cards, a DVD player, PlayStation console and a mini spy-camera, which all belonged to the man, were confiscated from his home.
Naidoo said he was expected to appear in the Boksburg North Magistrate’s Court on Friday.
When asked how the ring operates, Naidoo said those who were part of the paedophile ring “have software which enables them to share images of child pornography with each other”.
Last month a 20-year-old Joburg-based university student was arrested in Melville for possessing child pornography.
“The computer science student was identified through the account of another suspect who was arrested in Plettenberg Bay early this year,” Naidoo said at the time.
The student, who cannot be named as he has not pleaded to the charges, was granted R5 000 bail and his case postponed to December 4.
Also arrested last month was a 47-year-old man caught in Fish Hoek.
The man was in possession of thousands of images of child pornography with some showing “violent abuse” of babies as young as a few days old.
He was charged with possession and distribution of pornography.
All suspects have been arrested as part of an international child pornography investigation known as Operation Cloud Nine.
The Cloud Nine operation is part of a joint crackdown by South African and Belgian police forces.
In March, a Port Elizabeth couple was arrested for possession and distribution of child pornography. Also arrested on the same charges was a 39-year-old Midrand man,
while a 53-year-old man from Grahamstown was arrested for possessing, manufacturing and distributing pictures of more than 600 children.
In January, a 37-year-old computer engineer from Plettenberg Bay was arrested after Belgian police profiled a paedophile on a social media website.
So far, 49 people from around the world have been arrested in the Cloud Nine operation.
Naidoo issued a stern warning to South Africans involved in such crimes: “We want to warn the people of South Africa that they must not allow themselves to be caught up in this vicious web.
“We are gaining momentum in tracking those involved. Let this serve as a warning that it is only a matter of time before you are arrested.”