HAMILTON, NJ — New Jersey authorities have arrested 24 men and one juvenile in an investigation into the possession and distribution of child pornography.
Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa said Wednesday each of the men arrested was found with multiple sexually explicit videos of young children and made them available to others.
Most of the arrests took place from Feb. 18 to 22, and occurred in 25 towns across New Jersey. The juvenile was identified as a 17-year-old boy from Cherry Hill.
Authorities say the seized videos show both boys and girls and were distributed through emails and file-sharing networks.
Five of those arrested had direct contact with young children, including two who were regular baby sitters, officials said. One was a registered sex offender.
Each man is charged with second-degree distribution of child porn and fourth-degree possession of child porn.
“Everyone sitting in the seclusion of their darkened homes viewing child rape videos has victimized these innocents by creating the market for this disgusting material. There’s no room for them to say, ‘I haven’t hurt anyone,'” the State Police superintendent, Col. Rick Fuentes, said in a written statement.
Four of the defendants are being detained as illegal immigrants.
All of the videos seized are being examined by the New Jersey Regional Computer Forensic Laboratory in Hamilton. The lab is a partnership with the FBI and also handles evidence from surrounding states.