A RETAIL manager from Malvern has been arrested in a police operation to smash an international paedophile ring.
The 36-year-old man, who has not been named, is thought to be a member of a group known as The Brotherhood.
He has been arrested in connection with the distribution and making of indecent images of children.
Twenty-one members of the group were arrested in five countries yesterday, in an operation led by the National High-Tech Crime Unit, based in London.
The leaders of the ring held annual board meetings known as the Teddy Bear's Picnic in a farmhouse in the United States.
A 51-year-old man from Northamptonshire was also arrested.
"Today's results illustrate an excellent example of how international law enforcement works in partnership to identify and bring to justice those responsible for and engaged in serious sexual abuse of children," said Det Supt Mick Deats, deputy head of the NHCTU.
In January, six people from the Worcester area were named on a list of suspected paedophiles who accessed a US child pornography website.
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