The crackdown, dubbed International Effort Confluencia, comprised four separate law enforcement phases carried out between March and September 2026. Investigators executed 127 search warrants, leading to the rescue of a five-year-old child whose parent had been producing and selling abuse material online.
INTERPOL said messaging platforms are increasingly used to groom children, coordinate abuse, connect offenders, and receive payment for illegal content. "These platforms are increasingly used to groom children, coordinate abuse, connect offenders and receive payment for illegal content. They also enable the recirculation of abuse content, resulting in continued revictimization of children," the agency said in a statement.
Stephen Fry, Executive Director of INTERPOL Investigation Support, stressed the urgency of cross-border cooperation. "Effective cross-border cooperation between law enforcement and the private sector has never been more urgent," Fry said. "Behind every file is a child who was abused, and who is revictimized every time that image recirculates. Wherever offenders move, we have to move faster."
Among the notable findings: Ecuadorian authorities identified one suspect in a CSAM-sharing group who had approximately 15GB of abuse images and more than 4,000 files. In Panama, investigators arrested the administrator of a group disseminating abusive material depicting children, which had more than 700 users. In Argentina, a suspect accused of sextortion of minors allegedly threatened victims who refused his requests for increasingly explicit content. INTERPOL said that suspect was allegedly in contact with over 260 girls worldwide.
Material seized during the investigation is expected to help identify further offenders and children at risk. The operation follows other recent actions: in February 2025, 25 suspects were arrested in Operation Cumberland targeting AI-generated CSAM; in April 2025, German prosecutors shut down Kidflix, a major dark web CSAM platform, arresting 79 suspects; and in June 2025, law enforcement from over a dozen countries arrested 20 suspects in a separate joint operation targeting CSAM via instant messaging groups.