Manitoba RCMP made arrests on charges of Distributing, Uploading, and Possessing Child Pornography over an eight-day period in late March.
Over an eight-day period at the end of March, the Manitoba RCMP Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) Unit executed five search warrants, made four arrests, and removed three children under six years of age from situations where they were being sexually abused and exploited. From those five search warrants, executed from March 18 to March 25, 2024, tens of thousands of child pornography images were located.
An RCMP press release noted that three different southern Manitoba communities were involved. The RCMP will not be identifying any individuals or communities that were part of the investigation to protect the identity of the victims.
The four individuals arrested were all men aged 37 to 56. All of them were charged with Distributing/Uploading/Possessing Child Pornography, and one of the suspects was additionally charged with Making Child Pornography.
The RCMP National Child Exploitation Crime Centre provided reports to the Manitoba RCMP ICE Unit that assisted them in locating these individuals and executing 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," said Corporal Gord Olson of the RCMP ICE Unit. "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. We continue to do everything we can to combat child exploitation and encourage parents to be mindful of how your children are engaging on social media."
Olson added in an interview with PortageOnline why they won't be sharing the names of the suspects.
"The reason that we don't specifically give that information, obviously, there's families that are connected to these people that have been arrested. We don't want to cause any grief for them as well. So, we try not to name the community, and are very general about that."
The investigations continue.