Brussels, 11/05/2006 (Agence Europe) - An operation jointly carried out by the police in 12 Member States and the USA and coordinated by EUROPOL, the FBI and INTERPOL has lead to several tens of people suspected of being involved in a vast internet paedophile network being arrested. Operation “Baleno” took place on 10 May and lead to police raids on 150 addresses in Belgium, Estonia, Finland, France, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Hungary and Austria, as well as in the USA. In France alone 38 people have been taken into custody after 42 addresses were searched, indicated a source at the French Ministry of the Interior. EUROPOL Director Max-Peter Ratzel affirmed that these “arrests and house searches are part of an important operation against those either directly or indirectly responsible for the sexual exploitation of children”. Investigations launched by the Dutch national police agency helped collect information in 76 different countries. Information from EU Member States and states with which EUROPOL has a cooperation agreement, were sent to EUROPOL in an effort to coordinate the operation. The network in question was using sophisticated techniques to hide members' electronic identities and diffuse encrypted abusive content on free web services.