Polish police have announced the dismantling of a vast online network for images of child sexual abuse, an operation carried out in cooperation with 11 other European countries.
The operation - codenamed FEVER - led to the arrest of 166 people across Europe, including 98 in Poland.
"Among those arrested were people who produced photographs and videos showing the sexual exploitation of minors, ran online forums where they exchanged the material, and pushed minors to have suicidal thoughts," said the Polish police cybercrime office.
"The perpetrators also included the victims' relatives and confidants."
Of the 166 people arrested, 111 were remanded in custody, 48 of them in Poland, Polish police said.
In Poland, some 600 police officers carried out 159 searches and seized a total of more than 1,700 devices and data media, including computers, hard drives, telephones and SIM cards.
More than 520,000 video files and child sexual abuse images were seized during the operation.
Gardaí said they searched nine locations in the State as part of the international operation.
In a statement, gardaí said they seized 18 devices during the searches.
They added investigations into the seizures are under way and a number of follow up arrests will be made in due course.
