Joint Operations Cell is a unit of GCHQ, a British signals intelligence agency, and the National Crime Agency (NCA), a United Kingdom national law enforcement agency. [1] [2] [3] [4] It opened in November 2015 with the intention of tackling a range of crime on the Dark Web, initially focusing on child sexual exploitation, [5] [6] but also including international sex trafficking [4] and the sale of drugs and weapons on darknet markets. [6] Its intelligence methods include analysis of data gathered through mass surveillance. [3] Joint Operations Cell is a collaborative effort of GCHQ and NCA, co-located in Warrington. [3] [7]
In November 2013, UK Prime Minister David Cameron said UK and US intelligence agencies would help fight child abuse images on the Dark Web that is inaccessible to search engines. [8] He announced plans to create the Joint Operations Cell at the We Protect Children Online Global Summit in December 2014. [9] [10] The opening of a co-located facility in Warrington in November 2015 was announced with a press release, quoting GCHQ director Robert Hannigan and then NCA director Keith Bristow. [1] [3] [7] [8]