An Interpol investigation spanning seven countries has uncovered a highly organized network of criminals who drugged and raped their partners and used online chat groups to aid and encourage “horrific” assaults, authorities said Thursday.
In most cases, the victims are sedated before being raped or sexually assaulted, according to Europol and Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA). These online groups provide a haven for primarily male perpetrators to coordinate assaults, share information and post videos and photos of their abuse, the report said.
The UK’s NCA said in a statement on Thursday that German and British criminal law enforcement agencies had launched a joint operation to tackle the “evolving threat”, with the cooperation of law enforcement agencies from the United States, Brazil, Canada, France, Hungary, the Netherlands and Spain.
In many cases, victims do not realize they are being sexually assaulted until they are contacted by police, and the abuse is carried out by “acquainted or trusted individuals, and in some cases, multiple affiliated offenders,” authorities said.
The investigation followed the high-profile case of Gisele Pericot in France. The case, in which the husband forced dozens of strangers to rape him while he was unconscious, shocked the world and sparked a cultural reckoning on gender-based violence and misogyny in the country.
The story also follows CNN’s undercover investigation into an online network of men who teach others how to drug and rape their partners.
Since launching a cross-border police collaboration dubbed Project Medusa in April, European law enforcement authorities have announced that they have identified more than 150 criminals and victims and discovered more than 270 new leads.
Fifty-seven people were reportedly arrested.
However, the true scale of these crimes and the number of victims are unknown and are “almost certainly under-reported”, according to the UK’s NCA.
NCA Deputy Director Nigel Leary said: “Drug-facilitated sexual assault is no longer an isolated act, but is increasingly organized, carried out through connected networks and enabled by digital platforms, requiring a more sophisticated operational response.”
Europol, which is coordinating the operation, said the perpetrators sought to “objectify and dehumanize” their victims, and in some cases the abuse had been going on for decades.
“They use encrypted messaging services, forums and private chat groups to exchange experiences, normalize abusive behavior, facilitate the illegal trade in prescription drugs and narcotics, and coordinate criminal activity,” it added.
In these online groups, criminals share information about what drugs to use, how to administer them, how to avoid detection, and request and share videos and photos of their abuse.
Siobhan Blake, head of rape and serious sexual crimes at the Crown Prosecution Service, said the abuse was “one of the most appalling things I have seen in my career”.
“Victims are being subjected to horrific sexual crimes in their own homes as the ultimate betrayal,” she said.
Police warn that victims can be of any age, social background or ability and encourage anyone who suspects they have been the victim of drug-induced sexual assault to come forward.
Across Europe, multiple arrests and convictions have been made in recent years of men accused or convicted of drugging and raping their unconscious partners.
Dominic Perico was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2024 for orchestrating the drugging and rape of his then-wife Gisele. Fifty other people were also convicted.
Last year, German national Fernando P. was sentenced to eight years and six months in prison after being found guilty of drugging his unconscious wife, raping her over a period of years, and sharing videos of the crime online.
Also in 2025, Zou Zhenhao was found guilty of raping 10 women in the UK and China and sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 24 years. Police and prosecutors said Zou contacted Chinese students on WeChat and dating apps, lured them to his apartment, drugged them and assaulted them.
And in April, Polish authorities arrested a man on suspicion of rape. Polish media identified the arrested man as “Piotr.” That was the pseudonym given to the Polish man at the center of CNN’s investigation, one of about 1,000 users of a private Telegram group dedicated to sharing advice on partner drugging and rape.
But experts told CNN that perpetrators of drug-induced sexual assault continue to evolve their methods of abuse, making it difficult for such cases to proceed to trial. There is also limited reliable data on how widespread this type of crime is, and victims are calling on regulators to take more aggressive action to remove online platforms and websites that host exploitative content.
Europol said the police operation was “the first of its kind,” and officials hoped that law enforcement agencies from multiple countries could join forces to bring to light certain kinds of abuse that “spread in secret online and behind closed doors,” Blake said.
