The arrested individuals are six men between 43-69 years old who are suspected of being leading figures behind the Darkweb platform, according to the police in North Rhine-Westphalia in a statement.
The site was only used to share pornographic material featuring children, says chief investigator Kai-Arne Gailer at a press conference. There are no official figures on how many victims are involved, but the police state that the material shared on the site only contained images of girls.
The police investigation consists of an enormous amount of material, including 94 boxes full of VHS cassettes and DVDs. On one of the suspects' computers, 13.5 terabytes of child pornography material was found, which corresponds to 3.4 million images according to the police.
According to the chief investigator, the raid may have a "long-term impact" on the spread of child pornography on the internet.
