Between Monday and Thursday morning, French authorities arrested 55 men in a sweeping operation aimed at dismantling a pedophile ring operating on the messaging platform Telegram, according to France’s Office for the Protection of Minors (OFMIN).
The suspects, aged 25 to 75, allegedly exchanged messages and child sexual abuse material (CSAM) with an “extremely dangerous” offender already incarcerated since the summer of 2024. This individual’s own children had been rescued after enduring abuse, said Quentin Bevan, head of OFMIN’s operational unit, in a statement to CNN on Thursday.
“These 55 individuals all exchanged CSAM imagery with the dangerous pedophile, so we had digital evidence implicating all of them,” Bevan explained.
He described the arrests as the result of a “ten-month long investigation,” involving deep surveillance and infiltration of the Telegram group where the content was being shared.
“We had to follow the exchanges, analyze them, and identify the individuals hiding behind these Telegram pseudonyms — especially those who had children, had criminal records, or worked in sensitive professions involving contact with children,” he said.
The men came from diverse backgrounds and included fathers, civil servants, military members, and paramedics. In France, possession and distribution of child sexual abuse material carries a sentence of up to five years in prison and a €100,000 (approximately $112,747) fine.
Telegram responded to the incident through spokesperson Remi Vaughn, stating the platform had taken “extensive measures to combat child abuse.” He noted that over 367,000 groups and channels linked to child abuse content had already been removed in 2025 alone.
This operation follows a high-profile incident in August 2024, when Telegram founder Pavel Durov was detained at Paris’s Bourget Airport. He was indicted on several charges, including money laundering and dissemination of child sexual abuse material.
Durov later defended himself in a public statement, asserting his commitment to stronger moderation policies and criticizing authorities for attempting to make him “personally responsible for other people’s illegal use of Telegram.”
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