HM Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands opens new Europol Headquarters in the Hague

Her Majesty Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands officially opened Europol’s new headquarters in The Hague on 1 July. The opening ceremony occurred in the presence of hundreds of senior law enforcement personnel, VIPs and dignitaries, alongside Europol’s 700 staff members and other invited guests.

Europol joined the Virtual Global Taskforce (VGT) in April this year, to provide an even stronger presence world-wide and greater global reach to combat online child sexual exploitation.

Working together with five other VGT member agencies and other dedicated international law enforcement agencies, Europol helped dismantle a global paedophile network consisting of thousands of online members. The operation was code named Operation Rescue.

During the opening of the new Europol headquarters, Europol hosted a press conference mentioning recent operational results for the organisation, including an update on Operation Rescue.

Since the official press announcement of Operation Rescue in March 2011, two more European countries (Belgium and Switzerland) have gone public announcing that they are involved in the ongoing operation.

This increases the total number of countries participating in this operation to 16, the number of child sex offenders identified to 705, the number of arrests to 190 and the number of victims identified to 230.

For the full story on the opening of the Europol headquarters, please see HM Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands opens new Europol headquarters in The Hague.