Child porn sweep NABS 1,300 suspects. (News).

Swiss authorities have launched a massive investigation into an international child pornography ring and have begun to compile a list of potential suspects. According to the Federal Police Office the 1,300 suspects include local officials, schoolteachers and high-ranking civil servants.

Spokeswoman Daniele Bersier says the nationwide swoop is being conducted parallel to similar operations in Germany and other European countries. Eighty people are under investigation in canton Vaud and the authorities in canton Bern have identified 118 suspects.

Suspects in canton Solothurn include an investigating magistrate, two teachers and a school psychologist.

The canton of Obwalden announced that the head of its personnel department had resigned after he was named in the inquiry.

Swiss officials say they had acted on information from the United States Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), which provided them with lists of customers of a US Internet company called Landslide Productions.

Child Pornography

Until the crackdown, the company provided users--who paid a monthly fee--with links to child pornography websites with names such as "Cyber Lolita" or "Child Rape."

Subscribers could also place or respond to classified or personal ads for child pornography.

According to a statement issued by the Federal Police Office, the people under investigation are all accused of using credit cards to buy pornographic material from the Internet.

Under Swiss law, the possession or downloading of hardcore pornography involving children, animals or violence from the Internet carries heavy fines or a maximum sentence of one year in prison. But viewing child pornography on the Internet is not a criminal offence.

The owner of Landslide Productions, Thomas Reedy, was sentenced to life last year for leading the largest commercial porn business to be uncovered in the US. His wife Janice was jailed for 14 years.