A rabbi, a little league coach, law enforcement and security officers and the mother of an infant are among 70 people arrested for allegedly sharing child pornography images online in what authorities are calling one of the largest local roundups of people who anonymously trade such images on the Internet, officials say.
Authorities said the victims who were sexually exploited and photographed range in age from newborn to 17.
Undercover Department of Homeland Security investigators along with NYPD detectives identified dozens of the suspects in about a month by setting up a website soliciting the sharing of illicit images.
Dozens of New York-area men allegedly uploaded or file-shared the illicit pictures without knowing they were doing so on a law enforcement website, authorities said.
One woman from New Jersey has also been arrested for allegedly using Skype to pose her young child in compromising positions.
Homeland Security investigators along with the NYPD Commissioner and several New York City district attorneys are expected to announce the charges at a news conference Wednesday afternoon.
Authorities say advances in technology and computer capacity have allowed child-porn collectors to more easily amass vast troves of disturbing images and to exchange files with each other directly. The New York effort resulted in the seizure of nearly 600 desktop and laptop computers, tablets, smartphones and other devices containing a total of 175 terabytes of storage.
Agents are still examining the devices to locate and catalog evidence -- an arduous task that could result in more arrests. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children also will use its analysts to review the images to see whether it can identify children using databases of known victims.
"We refer to each of these images as a crime scene photo because that's exactly what they are,'' said John Ryan, the organization's chief executive officer.
Authorities decided to launch the operation after the January arrest of the former police chief of suburban Mount Pleasant, Brian Fanelli, who pleaded not guilty this week to federal charges of knowingly receiving and distributing child pornography.
Court papers allege that Fanelli told investigators he began looking at child porn as research before it grew into a "personal interest."
