An international police operation spanning seven nations has uncovered extremely organized networks of offenders who drug and rape their companions and use online chat groups to assist and encourage their “horrifying” assaults, authorities mentioned on Thursday.
In most instances, the victims are women who’re sedated earlier than being raped and sexually assaulted, Europol and Britian’s National Crime Agency (NCA) mentioned. The online groups present a haven for predominantly male perpetrators to coordinate assaults, share data in addition to publish movies and images of the abuse, they mentioned.
German and British crime companies, with the assistance of legislation enforcement from the United States, Brazil, Canada, France, Hungary, the Netherlands, and Spain, have launched a joint operation to deal with the “evolving threat,” Britian’s NCA mentioned in an announcement Thursday.
Often, the victims do not know they’ve been sexually assaulted till they’re contacted by police, and the abuse is dedicated by “someone they know and trust, and in some cases by multiple connected offenders,” the company mentioned.
The investigations come after the high-profile case of Gisele Pelicot in France, whose husband solicited dozens of strangers to rape her whereas she was unconscious, in a case that shocked the world and sparked a cultural depending on gender-based violence and misogyny within the nation.
It additionally follows an undercover investigation by NCS into online networks of men educating others how to drug and rape their companions.
Since launching the cross-border police collaboration, dubbed Project Medusa, in April, European investigators say they’ve recognized greater than 150 offenders and victims, and opened greater than 270 new leads.
Fifty-seven individuals have been arrested, they mentioned.
But the true scale of these crimes and quantity of victims is unknown and “almost certainly underreported,” in accordance to Britain’s NCA.
“Drug-facilitated sexual assault is no longer isolated behaviour, but increasingly organized, conducted via coordinated networks and enabled by digital platforms, requiring a more sophisticated operational response,” mentioned Nigel Leary, deputy director on the NCA.
Perpetrators search to “objectify and dehumanise” their victims and in some instances the abuse takes place over a long time, mentioned Europol, which is coordinating the operation.
“They use encrypted messaging services, forums, and closed chat groups to exchange experiences, normalize abusive behaviour, facilitate the illegal trade in prescription medications and narcotics, and coordinate criminal acts,” it added.
In these online groups, offenders share details about which medication to use, how to administer them, how to keep away from detection, and request and share movies and images of the abuse.
Siobhan Blake, the rape and critical sexual offences lead for the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service, mentioned the abuse “is some of the most horrifying I have seen in my career.”
“Victims are being subject to horrendous sexual offending in their own homes in an ultimate breach of trust,” she mentioned.
Police warn that victims could be any age, social background or potential, and have inspired anybody who suspects they’ve been a sufferer of drug-facilitated sexual assault to come ahead.
Across Europe there have been several arrests and convictions in recent times of men who’ve been accused or discovered responsible of drugging and raping their unconscious companions.
Dominique Pelicot was handed a 20-year prison sentence in 2024 for organizing the drugging and rape of his then-wife Gisèle. Fifty others have been additionally convicted.
Last yr, German nationwide Fernando P. was found guilty of drugging and raping his unconscious spouse for years and sharing video of his crimes online, and sentenced to 8 years and 6 months in jail.
Also in 2025, Zhenhao Zou was convicted of raping 10 women within the UK and China and jailed for all times with a minimal time period of 24 years. Police and prosecutors mentioned Zou contacted college students of Chinese heritage on WeChat and relationship apps, and lured them to his flats to drug and assault them.
And in April, Polish authorities arrested a man in reference to an alleged rape. Polish media retailers recognized the person arrested as “Piotr,” the pseudonym given to the Polish man on the heart of NCS’s investigation and who was one of practically 1,000 customers in a non-public Telegram group devoted to sharing recommendation on the drugging and rape of companions.
But specialists have told NCS that offenders of drug-facilitated sexual assault proceed to evolve how they perform the abuse, making it tougher for such instances to make their means to trial. There can also be restricted dependable knowledge as to how widespread these sorts of crimes are, and survivors have called for regulators to take extra proactive motion to take down online platforms and web sites that host exploitative materials.
The police operation is the “first of-its-kind,” in accordance to Europol, and these concerned say they hope that by becoming a member of forces, legislation enforcement throughout a number of nations can carry out into the open a sort of abuse that “thrives in secrecy online and behind closed doors,” Blake mentioned.