Australian police have helped catch one of the world's most wanted paedophiles in the world.
Alladin Lanim had evaded capture for 14 years and was accused of sexually abused dozens of children aged between two to 16 in a small Malaysian village.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the predator also boasted about his sick crimes on dark web messageboards.
Advert
Specialist investigators from the Australian Federal Police, Queensland Police and the Australian Transactions Reports and Analysis Centre were instrumental in tracking down the 40-year-old.
An international report published back in 2019 stated Lanim's anonymous dark web alias was in the top 10 list of offenders in the world in exploitation of children on the internet.
Detective Sergeant Daniel Burnicle, the acting senior officer for the AFP in Kuala Lumpur, told the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age: "He was so prolific with so many victims, that's why he became a high priority."
Advert
They didn't have much to work off except the online alias. However, they struck gold when Aussie experts came across an image on social media that looked a lot like the man they were hunting.
The team from the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation's victim identification sent the picture to Malaysian officials to see if they could get his identification.
They started cross-referencing the background landscape in Lanim's photos until they could get a rough idea of his location
Burnicle said: "It's just a slow, methodical burn. They're going through images trying to work out where that location may be so they can follow up. It's all very difficult with the dark web to track people."
Advert
Then they got the piece of the puzzle they were desperate to find: his name. Once they got his real-world identity, they could then see if the name popped up in any official documents that might reveal where he's been hiding.
It wasn't until July this year that they managed to finally find him. He was staying in managed quarantine after arriving back on his home island after a trip to mainland Malaysia.
When he was given the all-clear, authorities were standing outside waiting to arrest him. Lanim pleaded guilty to 18 charges and was sentenced to 48 years in prison and 15 strokes of the cane.
Australian investigators gave over all the material they had compiled on him over the years to Malaysian prosecutors.
Advert
Detective Sergeant Daniel Burnicle said: "This [investigation] was all, of course, done during COVID, which made it all more difficult in terms of being able to get around the country and just conduct those basic field inquiries that you would do.
"We hope this case will be like a learning experience that we use over here and say 'this is what's happened, how can we do it better for next time?' You need a police force to be able to counter this type of offending."
Featured Image Credit: PATopics: No-Article-Matching