German police search 1,400 homes for child porn

BERLIN — German police have searched the homes of about 1,400 people suspected of having paid money to view child pornography Web sites, the country's federal crime-fighting agency said on Friday.

Police confiscated about 47,000 computer disks and 25,000 videos in recent days. Two cases of alleged sexual abuse also came to light, the BKA agency said in a statement.

The operation had been initiated through investigations in the United States, where a company was found to have provided access to about 300 child pornography Web sites.

The head of the company, Landslide Productions Inc., which made about $5.5 million (5.6 million euros) through the sites, was arrested in August 2001 and sentenced to life in prison, the BKA said.

German police had received the names of German suspects through Interpol and U.S. officials, it said.

In northern Hesse, local police said they raided the homes of eight male suspects aged between 25 and 52. Officials confiscated computers, cameras, a camcorder, disks and about 360 CD-ROMs.

The raids were the third nationwide search operation linked to child pornography this year, the BKA said.