Authorities uncover international online sex abuse networks
Announced Thursday, the coordinated law enforcement efforts disrupted four online communities that authorities said played a significant role in enabling and normalizing what Europol called "drug-facilitated sexual assaults."
According to authorities, the international investigation targeted drug-facilitated sexual assaults in intimate partner relationships.
The victims, almost exclusively women, are sedated with drugs or alcohol before they are sexually assaulted, sometimes by multiple offenders, without their knowledge.
Identifying information about those arrested was not made public, but the authorities said they were in long-term relationships with their victims, who were often unaware of the crimes, which were sometimes committed for decades.
Project Medusa, launched in April and led by British and German authorities, resulted in the identification of 156 perpetrators and victims and 274 investigative leads, as well as 57 arrests and 113 investigations launched.
Separately, Britain's National Crime Agency said an investigation launched in October 2025 identified more than 270 individuals linked to one particular online forum and its successors, with more than 210 packages of intelligence sent to law enforcement partners in Britain and overseas.
"This is a deeply distressing form of sexual offending and domestic abuse, and we recognize the enormity of the impact on victims, particularly where the person responsible is someone known and trusted," Deputy Assistant Commissioner Helen Millichap, director of the National Center for Violence Against Women and Girls and Public Protection, said in a statement.
"In many cases, victims may not realize what has happened to them at the time. They may only become aware through police contact or emerging evidence, which can be extremely confusing and difficult to process."
The investigations come after the case of Gisele Pelicot gained international attention last year.
Pelicot was a victim of mass rape. Her ex-husband, Dominique Pelicot, was convicted of drugging and raping her and inviting dozens of other men to participate, all without her knowledge.
The international authorities said Thursday that the networks they disrupted show that Pelicot is not the only victim of this type of crime.
"The abuse we're discussing is some of the most horrifying I have ever seen in my career," Siobhan Blake, National CPS lead for Rape and Serious Sexual Offenses, said in a statement.
"This offending thrives in secrecy online and behind closed doors. It is the job of the criminal justice system to bring it out into the open to deliver for victims and survivors."
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