An international child pornography investigation led to the arrest of 245 people, most in the United States, federal officials announced Thursday. Some were arrested in Arizona and California.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials identified 123 victims in the investigation called Operation Sunflower. Some of the victims were infants. Others under the age of three. Two dozen are now adults and were abused as children.
ICE spokeswoman Amber Cargile says some of those arrested were linked to each other though ICE still doesn’t know to what extent.
"People who view child pornography often join online groups where they share images of children being exploited. Some of these groups require that you upload new material in order to be able to download material so they’re frequently sharing files with each other," she said.
Dozens of the children were directly rescued from suspects and other victims were identified in countries around the world.
