PARIS, France (AFP)— Fifty-five men including a priest, a paramedic, and a music teacher were arrested in France this week as part of an operation to dismantle a suspected paedophile ring operating via the Telegram messaging app, authorities said on Thursday.

The arrests took place in 42 departments over possession, distribution and regular viewing of pornography involving children “under the age of 10”, France’s OFMIN, which is tasked with preventing violence against minors, told AFP.

OFMIN issued the warrant that led to the arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov in Paris in 2024, and he remains under formal investigation by French authorities over illegal content on the popular service.

The arrests of the 55 men aged 25 to 75, which followed a 10-month investigation, took place from Monday to Thursday.

The men exchanged messages on Telegram and were in contact with “extremely dangerous” child sex abusers who have been in prison since last summer, Quentin Bevan, head of OFMIN’s operational unit, told AFP.

The large-scale operation began last summer with the arrest of individuals suspected of abusing children and posting images on Telegram.

The suspects are being investigated for human trafficking and face life imprisonment.

“It took 10 months of investigation to track down these child abusers,” Bevan said.

“Ten months of undercover work involving thousands of exchanges, analysis and detection of paedophile images by a task force set up at the OFMIN.”

The suspects either have children or grandchildren or come into contact with children at work.

Some of the suspects boasted of abusing children while they slept but now claim they did not actually commit any crimes, according to investigators.

– ‘Paedophile den’ –
In a separate case, Durov has been charged with several counts of failing to curb extremist content.

Investigators have confronted him with specific cases ranging from child abuse to drug trading, scams, arms sales and the hiring of hitmen.

The Russian-born entrepreneur has since announced steps appearing to bow to Paris’s demands.

While Bevan acknowledged progress in Telegram’s cooperation with investigators since Durov’s arrest, he said the platform was “barely fulfilling its legal obligations”.

He said that Telegram remains a “paedophile den” and a “platform of choice” for child abusers.

Telegram rejected the accusation in a statement on Thursday, saying that it “meets and exceeds its legal obligations to fight harmful content”.

The messaging platform has “always complied with EU law” and “consistently responded to all binding legal requests for years”, the company added.

Durov says Telegram has also sought to fight against child abuse for years.

In June 2024, France shut down the adult website Coco which was used to commit numerous sex crimes such as child sex abuse and rape.

After that some perpetrators of child sex abuse are believed to have switched to Telegram, according to an investigator.