Peru police arrest internet predator accused of blackmailing more than 500 children across the world to perform sex acts on camera

Arturo Dodero Tello detained after undercover operation by Spanish and Peruvian police

Tello 'blackmailed more than 500 victims as young as six' to make naked videos of themselves

Children from Spain, Ukraine, Peru, Argentina and Chile targeted



Police seize more than 200 videos during search of his home in Lima



Arturo Dodero Tello: the 29-year-old Peruvian national was arrested on November 28 in Lima on charges of conducting paedophile acts through the internet to some 500 child victims

An internet predator accused of blackmailing more than 500 children across the world into performing sex acts on camera before he sold the images has been arrested in Peru.

Arturo Dodero Tello, 29, considered the most prolific paedophile in the Spanish-speaking world, was detained on Thursday after an 18-month dual-continent undercover operation by police in Spain and Peru.

Tello faces charges of targeting children in countries across South America and Europe - including Peru, Argentina, Chile, Ukraine and Spain, and selling the videos he made of them across the world.

He is also accused of belonging to an international sex gang.

Police investigators claim he befriended his victims by using an email account where he posed as a schoolboy using the alias Maxi. He would then persuade his victims to take photos and videos in just their underwear.

Tello would subsequently blackmail them into making videos of themselves naked and performing sex acts.

Most of the girls he allegedly targeted were aged six to 10. Spanish investigators said during a press conference in Lima, the Peruvian capital, that 14 minors in Spain had come forward to claim they had been blackmailed.

Police in Spain made the first breakthrough after discovering one of the videos in a private internet forum featuring a girl with a Gran Canaria school logo on her shirt.

They tipped off colleagues in Peru after identifying the girl and obtaining Tello's details from an email created in Argentina which his victim gave them.

Scroll down for video

Arturo Dodero Tello (c), paraded by police investigators: police claim Tello befriended his victims by using an email account where he posed as a schoolboy using the alias Maxi. He would then persuade his victims to take photos and videos in just their underwear before blackmailing them into making naked videos

Detectives seized more than 200 videos during a search of his home in Lima along with other material they believe could lead them to more victims.

Tello tried to hide a hard disk containing the pornographic material as officers burst into his property - but they discovered them concealed in a hole in the wall behind his bed.

Spanish police chief Ignacio Coslido said: 'This has been an arduous investigation which has led to the imprisonment of a depraved individual who preyed on the most defenceless and vulnerable.'

Jose Maria Martins of the child protection division of Spain's Technological Investigation Brigade, said: 'The most important thing is that we have removed the most prolific sexual predator we have ever encountered in the Spanish-speaking world.'

Gen Cesar Cortijo of the Peruvian police, said: 'We are still investigating the totality of the children involved.'

Promoting or selling child pornography in Peru carries an eight year prison sentence.

