Four men are facing child pornography charges after police searched properties in three different communities.
The Manitoba RCMP Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) unit made the arrests from March 18 to March 25 after obtaining five search warrants. Police removed three children under six years old “from situations where they were being sexually abused and exploited” and found tens of thousands of child pornography images, Mounties said in a news release Wednesday.
Mounties said they are not publicly naming the men arrested — ages 37, 40, 42 and 56 — and are not naming the southern Manitoba communities “to protect the identity of the victims.”
The four men are charged with distributing, possessing or accessing child pornography. One is also charged with making child pornography.
The RCMP’s National Child Exploitation Crime Centre helped the ICE unit find the suspects and execute some of the search warrants.
“This is four arrests and three children removed from traumatic situations in a span of only 10 days. I wish I could say that this is a success, and it absolutely is in terms of getting these kids to safety, but it is really a drop in the bucket when it comes to the material we seized,” Cpl. Gord Olson of the ICE unit said in the release.
“I know people will be surprised at how much child sexual abuse and exploitation material we encountered, but the truth is, this problem is prolific. It is in every community, and so many children are affected by it.”
fpcity@freepress.mb.ca