An Auckland man has been arrested following a Customs/Te Mana Ārai investigation into the sharing of child sexual exploitation images and videos.
It comes after overseas law enforcement told Customs about the 39-year-old's activity on foreign-based cloud and social media platforms.
Simon Peterson, chief officer for the child exploitation operations team at Customs/Te Mana Ārai, said they were "very serious" crimes.
"Sharing this type of material fuels the abuse of children across the world, so it's critical that we identify and catch others like him."
Customs investigators identified the man then carried out a search warrant at his central Tāmaki Makaurau property.
They found "images and videos of child sexual abuse on his devices", Peterson said, alongside a recording of the 2019 Christchurch Mosque Attack livestream.
"Most of them [were] classified as the most extreme category".
The man was sentenced to four years, ten months in prison at the Auckland District Court on Monday, after being found guilty on 16 charges - for possessing, importing, exporting, distributing, and making objectionable materials.
Peterson said these types of offenders are getting more sophisticated - so law enforcement has to keep up.
"Customs is committed to working alongside local and international law enforcement agencies to combat the exploitation of children, no matter where they are in the world," Peterson said.
Several laws in Aotearoa govern objectionable material, including the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act (1993) and the Customs and Excise Act (2018).
