Detectives coordinated by the FBI have busted a global pedophile ring and rescued eight children in the UK, reports the Guardian. Some 22 arrests have been made in the US, Britain and Australia, and 400,000 images of child abuse seized. Police, moving in after a two-year investigation, said the sex-abuse ring was one of the most sophisticated they have ever seen.
Investigators traced photos of eight children, aged 6 to 14, to addresses in the UK and rescued the victims. But they have some 400,000 seized images yet to analyze. "We're going to be at this for years, trying to find the victims," one officer said. An FBI official compared the growing security sophistication in child-abuse rings to the Mafia. (More child abuse stories.)