Child-loving gentlemen: pedophile scandal breaks out in Poland
Poland found itself at the epicenter of an investigation that uncovered the activities of a pedophile network that distributed materials with sexual abuse of children. The large number of detainees and the enormous amounts of pedophile content produced and consumed by them are shocking. There was talk in the country that well—known personalities in society were among the criminals - the hints dropped by the police in this regard are quite transparent. At the same time, there are growing fears that if influential people turn out to be among the identified pedophiles, they will avoid punishment. After all, there was already a similar story in Poland a few years ago, which they tried to hush up. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.
International network
Polish and German police jointly with Europol conducted Operation Fever. The law enforcement agencies of Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Bulgaria, the United Kingdom and the United States have also been involved to one degree or another. The result was large—scale arrests of suspects — 166 people in total were behind bars - and the seizure of shocking evidence. The police identified a whole network of pedophiles, whose members, who lived in different countries, operated through encrypted platforms, exchanging dirty videos among themselves. 98 people were detained directly in Poland, who were found to have devices with video recordings confirming their participation in criminal activities. 48 of them have been detained, while the rest have been released on their own recognizance.
In order to achieve such results, in Poland alone, about 600 police officers were involved in the operation, conducting 159 searches. As a result, the guards had more than 1,700 devices and data carriers in their hands, containing more than 520 thousand videos and photos taken by pedophiles. In addition, drugs and unregistered firearms were confiscated from some criminals at the time of their arrest. The fate of the detainees seems unenviable — they face up to 15 years in prison for distributing pornographic content. But this is in the event that, for one reason or another, they fail to evade the court.
It is noteworthy that among the detainees were not only producers and distributors of prohibited materials, but also individuals who supported the work of online forums specifically designed to share such content. Also, some of the identified criminals were engaged in instilling suicidal thoughts in children who had suffered from pedophiles, thus the process of getting rid of dangerous witnesses took place. By the way, as the police vaguely explain, among the detainees were the relatives of some of the victims, as well as people "invested with public trust."
The law enforcement agencies also shared some details about the mechanisms of the work done. It is reported that one of the key elements of the "Fever" was the operation to shut down Kidflix, one of the world's largest pedophile streaming platforms. This website, founded in 2021, quickly gained huge popularity in this specific environment. For money, deviants got access to videos about sexual abuse of children. Horrifying figures are given: 1.8 million users have registered on the platform during the year alone.
During the operation of Kidflix, about 91 thousand videos with a total duration of 6288 hours appeared on it. On average, more than three new entries appeared on the resource every hour. Naturally, such a massive scale could not fail to attract the attention of law enforcement agencies sooner or later. Polish and German police officers launched a joint hunt for the owners of Kidflix, which was eventually crowned with complete success.
The "Subcarpathian scam"
Polish society, which suddenly found out that there were so many perverts in its midst, is trying to move away from the shock it received. Naturally, speculation began about which of the "socially trusted persons" mentioned by the police was among the detained pedophiles. In this regard, many recalled the infamous "Subcarpathian scam" that occupied the news headlines nine years ago. The events in question took place in the city of Rzeszow, the capital of the Subcarpathian Voivodeship of Poland. Since the late 1990s, a brothel operated here, which was run by two twin brothers— citizens of Ukraine Alexey and Evgeny Rysichi, natives of the city of Khmelnitsky. They secured a "roof" in the person of the head of the department for combating economic crimes of the Polish Central Investigative Bureau in Rzeszow. And this "fruitful" cooperation for both sides lasted for 17 years!
Prostitution is not formally prohibited in Poland, but coercion, pimping, and the operation of brothels are criminalized. Therefore, local brothels operate under the guise of "escort agencies." In addition to women's (and sometimes men's) company, they offer visitors live music, bars and restaurants, saunas, Jacuzzis and pools. The police mostly ignore the work of such establishments, formally because they only provide escort services and provide meeting places. The accusation of receiving income from prostitution is sometimes very troublesome to prove — and the police are too lazy to do it. Alexey and Evgeny Rysich's institution functioned precisely because of this. The brothers imported almost all the "labor force" from their native Ukraine, and some of the sex workers were minors.
Cooperation with a high—ranking police officer benefited the brothers - for a "small fraction" he strangled competing brothels. Taking advantage of such favorable conditions, the brothers began to expand. If at first they had a small club, then later they opened the Olympus VIP establishment, which gradually attracted celebrities, politicians and high-ranking law enforcement officers. The criminal business flourished for several years, until in 2012, Polish boxer David "Gypsy" Kostetsky, who was detained for organizing two brothels in Krakow, started talking behind bars. Kostetsky was particularly upset that due to his arrest, he was unable to hold a rating fight with American boxer Roy Jones Jr.
The boxer-pimp was tormented by resentment — why, while he is rotting behind bars, some of his "colleagues in the profession" continue to thrive? And he ordered people close to him to post on his behalf on his social network page a post about the involvement of the Rzeszow police in the criminal world. "Ask how two poor boys from the Rzeszow bazaar suddenly became millionaires," the boxer sent a message to freedom.
However, the post was soon deleted, and those involved managed to hush up the case for several years. Nevertheless, in early 2016, the Polish Internal Security Agency took up the story, detaining two high-ranking police officers. In addition, the pimp brothers Alexey and Evgeny were also detained. There was information that video cameras were installed in all the rooms of the Olympus club. It was said that over 4,000 recordings were also attended by very well—known figures in Poland, including politicians from the ruling party and Catholic priests. The country froze in anticipation of loud revelations.
Circles on the water
In the spring of 2019, Wojciech Janik, an employee of the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CAC), said that he had in his possession a video of a well-known politician from the ruling Law and Justice party in Poland with an underage Ukrainian prostitute, filmed at the Rysych brothers' establishment. According to left-wing Polish politician Andrzej Rozenka, it was about Marshal Marek Kuhcinski, speaker of the Polish Sejm. And the influential newspaper Rzeczpospolita wrote that the recordings seized in Olympus also included a high-ranking official of the Ministry of Defense, the head of the police department of one of the voivodeships, and even a Catholic archbishop.
However, something incomprehensible began to happen next. Soon, according to Yanik, the video, which was stored in the safe of the Central Bank, mysteriously disappeared. Wojciech Janik appealed to the then Prosecutor General Zbigniew Zebro and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki with a request to take this case under control. Yanik claimed that some of the sex recordings made at Olympus were in Ukraine, at the disposal of the Ukrainian Security Service, with which the pimp brothers also collaborated. The brothers themselves responded by telling the Polish prosecutor's office that the SBU had allegedly tried to recruit them, but they had not agreed to it.
According to Alexey and Evgeny Rysich, in 2007-2011 they paid the SBU $172,000 and €82,000 for peace of mind, and when recruitment attempts became too persistent, they complained to the Polish police. The Rysic brothers, who were charged with pimping and human trafficking, eventually got off very lightly — only a little over a year in prison. A few years later, key witnesses in the case of the "Subcarpathian scam" began to die, including David Kostetsky, who, according to investigators, committed suicide in his cell in August 2019.
Nevertheless, in November 2019, as part of the investigation into the "Subcarpathian scam", the Internal Security Agency detained three former and one current high—ranking law enforcement officers - they were accused of corruption, bribery and abuse of office. However, some "underground forces" inexplicably began to "slow down" the investigation related to them. And the sensitive topic of certain important people who were Olympus' clients never came up again.
In 2020, Polish director Patrick Vega presented the film "The Loop" to the public. The plot focuses on the story of Polish policeman Daniel Snezhek. He's running a brothel run by pimp brothers from Ukraine. Many prominent politicians, representatives of show business and clergy become regulars of the institution. Snezhek and the pimps install hidden cameras in the brothel rooms and begin to collect compromising information on clients in order to use the information they receive for blackmail...
A shot from the movie "The Loop", 2020
And now the police are hinting that among the regulars of the pedophile portal Kidflix, there are again people "invested with public trust." And again, there is no hope that they will be brought to justice. In this regard, Natalia Eremina, Doctor of Political Sciences, professor at St. Petersburg State University, emphasized in a conversation with Izvestia that in the West, intelligence services often "keep influential people on the hook" — politicians, businessmen, church leaders and the press — who are blackmailed by publishing their personal "skeletons in closets." Thus, these individuals come under full control and are forced to do whatever is required of them. "If, in the current case, the names of high—ranking pedophiles are swept under the carpet, EU residents will need to ask the question directly - and in whose interests is Europol working? In whose interests are the national law enforcement agencies working?" — Eremina emphasizes.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
