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Son of former Edmonton councillor arrested in international child sex exploitation investigation
Posted July 8, 2026 8:25 am.
Last Updated July 8, 2026 3:36 pm.
The son of a former Edmonton city councillor and mayoral candidate is among 28 suspects arrested around the world in an investigation into child sexual exploitation.
Rocco Caterina, 40, was arrested at his home in Stony Plain, Alta., by ALERT’s Internet Child Exploitation unit on May 27.
He is the son of Tony Caterina, a longtime Edmonton city councillor who ran for mayor last year. Rocco Caterina ran for city council in 2017, and worked as a staffer in his dad’s office at city hall.
The accused allegedly obtained material depicting child sexual abuse by paying, with cryptocurrency, for access to dark web forums.
Rocco Caterina was charged with possessing child sexual abuse and exploitation materials. The allegations against him have not been tested in court. He is scheduled to appear in court July 15.
Operation Torch, headed by the Norwegian National Criminal Investigation Service (NCIS), led to the arrests of 28 suspects in 14 countries: Austria, Belgium, Canada, Switzerland, Czechia, Germany, Denmark, the UK, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania and Sweden.
“We have collaborated closely with law enforcement services in 13 other countries in order to coordinate the arrests of the identified users of the forums using this cryptocurrency as the required method of payment,” said police prosecutor Terje Michelsen of the Norwegian NCIS.
The suspects range in age from 22 to 54, according to a press release by Norway’s NCIS, and 460 items were seized from them, including electronic devices and crypto wallets.
Staff Sgt. Alison Church with ALERT described just how difficult it is for police to trace a crime of this nature.
“Incredibly complex,” she told reporters in Edmonton Wednesday.
Church explained international police used new investigative techniques and got help from the FBI over a two-year stretch.
“We’re talking about a cryptocurrency transaction that took two large police agencies to identify and delve into and confirm who that user was,” she said.
Wanda Polzin Holman, who runs the Little Warriors non-profit, which provides support to child survivors of sexual abuse and trauma, says cases like this one highlight how the true number of victims from sex crimes is hard to pin down.
Holman says the group’s latest research shows 95 per cent of cases involving child sexual abuse aren’t brought to justice.
“Ot’s a complicated matter, and it’s going to take many people coming together to speak up to continue to educate themselves in order to protect children and teens,” Polzin Holman said.
“Unfortunately, what we’re hearing today is a drop in the bucket in terms of what we know actually exists.”
Operation Torch remains ongoing.
