GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/07 Oct.) — Police operatives rescued two minors and arrested a couple in a raid on an alleged cyber pornography base in a village here on Sunday night.
Senior Insp. Leo Dolfiles, head of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-Region 12’s cybercrime unit, said Monday suspects Argie and Richel Noro were nabbed at around 7 p.m. in a rented apartment in Diaz Subdivision, Purok Balite in Barangay Lagao that reportedly served as a base for a cyber pornography operation.
He said the couple, who came from Malungon town in Sarangani Province, was allegedly caught during the raid in the act of facilitating a lewd show via the Internet involving two minors.
“We have long been monitoring them and we immediately decided to launch the raid after confirming their activities,” he said in a radio interview.
Dolfiles said they initially got wind of the couple’s illegal activity several weeks ago through a tip from a concerned resident.
He said they immediately monitored their activities through a cyber pornography website and later confirmed that they were indeed operating in the city.
“They offer live sex shows through the website in exchange for some amount,” Dolfiles said.
He said the couple’s clients would usually purchase “stars” or credits to view their shows and they later receive the payments through money transfer.
Based on their monitoring, Dolfiles said the couple’s clients were mostly foreigners from the United States, France, Qatar and Ukraine.
He said the shows were done “day and night” and the couple reportedly earns P1,000 to P6,000 per day from the illegal activity.
Dolfiles said they were able to track down the location and address of the suspects by getting information through their accounts at the popular social networking site Facebook.
He said they then applied for a search warrant for the apartment in the name of Richel Noro and it was granted by Regional Trial Court Branch 35 Executive Judge Oscar Noel.
During the raid, he said they recovered six personal computers, three of which were set up inside the apartment’s rooms.
Dolfiles said they are preparing to file charges for violation of section 4, paragraphs a and b of Republic Act 9208 or the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003 against the couple.
He said they immediately turned over the rescued minors, who were aged 15 and 16 years-old, to the City Social Welfare and Development Office.
The victims are reportedly residents of this city and of Malungon town in Sarangani.
City Mayor Ronnel Rivera and Sarangani Rep. Emmanuel Pacquiao, who rushed to the CIDG headquarters at Camp Fermin Lira here after the raid, condemned the illegal activity and vowed to help clamp down on other similar operations in the area. (MindaNews)
