Police have arrested a 29-year-old man suspected of being the mastermind of a pedophile ring that recorded and sold videos of babies and young children being sexually abused.
Police said the ring sold the videos through the Telegram messaging app and on the dark web.
The suspect was believed to have recorded himself sexually abusing the victims, including two baby boys and three girls aged two months to five years, before selling the videos to selected local and foreign buyers.
“The main suspect would obtain babies by looking for Facebook posts offering babies for adoption,” said Bukit Aman criminal investigation department director M Kumar.
“The suspect would provide RM1,500 to RM3,500 in cash to the mothers and also settle their hospital bills,” he said at a press conference at the Johor police headquarters, joined by state police chief Ab Rahaman Arsad.
Kumar showed a birth certificate that listed the suspect as the father of one of the babies, indicating that the birth mothers were cared for until birth certificates were obtained from the national registration department.
He said the suspect had also secured legal custody of his victims as his adopted children.
Kumar said the suspect was also believed to have looked for other victims by randomly targeting children in his neighbourhood who were left unsupervised by their parents or guardians.
“So far, we have identified and discovered three victims (from his neighbourhood), girls aged five to seven years,” he said.
Ten other people have since been arrested to assist in investigations, comprising two Malaysian women and eight foreigners aged 25 to 60.
The police also seized birth certificates, maternity record books, identification cards, empty JPN forms, laptops and mobile phones from the suspect’s home.
Kumar said the three children and two babies rescued are now under the care of the welfare department.
Kumar said the arrest was made after a month-long operation involving the police and international agencies. Five investigation papers were opened and were referred to the Attorney-General’s Chambers on Aug 21.
