In March of 2026, investigators with CiberPOL, part of the Ecuadorian National Police, followed a CyberTip submitted to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and traced it to a location south of the city. Someone was distributing child sexual abuse material (CSAM), meaning children were in need of help. Working quickly, with support from Our Rescue, investigators built a careful case in collaboration with prosecutors from the Fiscalía General del Estado until they had enough evidence to act.
CSAM cases address ongoing sexual abuse that continually hurts a real child every time someone stores, shares, or views the material. Each image or video of CSAM documents real sexual abuse, capturing a moment where a child was hurt, and when that material circulates online, that harm persists, often indefinitely, as the content spreads across platforms, countries, and networks.
In this case, after months of investigative work, police obtained a search and arrest warrant and conducted an operation at a residence suspected of housing CSAM.
During the search, Electronic Storage Detection (ESD) K9 Samai helped locate devices that the suspect had tried to conceal. The team uncovered 23 devices and, within them, more than 453 files containing CSAM.
That’s 453 files of a child being hurt, abused, and exploited.
At the scene, officers arrested a 20-year-old Ecuadorian national and he is now facing charges for allegedly distributing CSAM.
From the first CyberTip to the final arrest, this response was possible because generous donors chose to support our mission. With your help, we can keep going, one case, one intervention at a time.
