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# Operation Babylon

January 2015, Child sexual abuse material
Led by [Polizia Postale e delle Comunicazioni](https://takedownindex.org/organizations/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)

What happened to the people?

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

[See people and accountability](#people)

Did it stay down?

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

[See what happened afterward](#afterward)

## What happened

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]](#source-1)

- [European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation](https://takedownindex.org/organizations/european-union-agency-for-law-enforcement-cooperation), supporting

**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

## People and accountability

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](https://takedownindex.org/takedowns/operation-babylon/organizations)

## What happened afterward

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

## Sources

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

### Official sources

1.
[Operation Babylon: Italian-led Tor hidden-service takedown](https://takedownindex.org/sources/europol-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.

Research context

## How this entry was checked

This entry came from a broader aggregation pass and has not been independently verified source by source. Its sources are graded no higher than P2 or S2, and most carry no address yet. Treat the figures as a research lead rather than a settled record.

Source review: Extended pass, not yet verified

Sources cited: 1

Research cutoff: August 20, 2026

Last reviewed August 21, 2026

See also

[About the Internet Takedown Index](https://takedownindex.org/about)

Related entries

- [Operation Pacifier / Playpen](https://takedownindex.org/takedowns/operation-pacifier-playpen)
- [Welcome to Video seizure](https://takedownindex.org/takedowns/welcome-to-video-seizure)
- [Boystown CSAM platform takedown](https://takedownindex.org/takedowns/boystown-csam-platform-takedown)

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