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Operation Babylon

January 2015, Child sexual abuse material
Led by Polizia Postale e delle Comunicazioni

Extended pass entry, last reviewed August 21, 2026

What was taken down?

Tor hidden service shut down; approximately 14,000 associated bitcoin wallets seized in connection with the administrator's residence search.

See what happened

What happened to the people?

No individual outcomes are recorded against this entry.
Group accounted for: Not established

See people and accountability

Did it stay down?

Not established in the public record. No later activity is recorded against this entry.

See what happened afterward

Italian State Police (Polizia Postale) and the National Centre for Combating Online Child Pornography shut a Tor hidden service used to exchange CSAM and host illicit-market activity, supported by Europol.

Date
January 1 to December 31, 2015
Target
Unnamed Tor CSAM/illicit-market hidden service, csam platform
Activity
Child sexual abuse material
Operational lead
Polizia Postale
Partners
Europol[1]
Jurisdiction
Not established
Outcome
Tor hidden service shut down; approximately 14,000 associated bitcoin wallets seized in connection with the administrator's residence search.
Status
Completed
Legal mechanism
Italian judicial search/seizure authority.
Group accounted for
Not established

No individual is named against this entry in the cited record. That is a gap in what has been published rather than a finding that nobody was involved.

Group accounted for: Not established

Final charging disposition of the administrator was not established in the reviewed source.

See the organizations and roles behind this action

Not established in the public record. No later activity is recorded against this entry.

Numbered markers throughout this entry link to the source that supports the claim beside them.

Official sources

  1. [1]
    Operation Babylon: Italian-led Tor hidden-service takedown

    Europol, June 1, 2015, Source grade P2

    Establishes the Italian-led shutdown of the Tor hidden service and the roughly 14,000-wallet seizure.

    No address recorded for this source. Publisher, title, and date are given so it can be retrieved from the publisher.

Coverage note.
  • Added from deep-research aggregation pass. Not independently re-verified source-by-source to the same standard as the original 38-incident core; source_quality capped at S2/P2 pending a dedicated verification pass.
  • Exact operational date not established beyond calendar year 2015 in the source material reviewed.