Project Spade
| Project Spade | |
|---|---|
| Operation name | Project Spade |
| Type | Child pornography crackdown |
| Roster | |
| Planned by | Canada, and United States |
| Executed by | Canada, Australia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Greece, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, United States |
| No. of countries participating | 50 |
| Mission | |
| Target | Azov Films |
| Timeline | |
| Date begin | October 2010 |
| Date executed | May 2011 |
| Results | |
| Arrests | 348 |
Project Spade was an international police investigation into child pornography, began in October 2010 in Toronto, Canada. The investigation started when Toronto Police Service officers made on-line contact with a man who was alleged to have been sharing pornographic videos via the Internet and by mail. The investigation eventually covered over 50 countries. 348 people were arrested internationally, and 386 children were said to have been rescued. The primary producers were Igor Rusanov and Andrey Ivanov in Crimea, Ukraine, Markus Roth in Romania, and Paul Kruger in Germany.