A New Jersey woman is among at least 71 people arrested in the New York City area in recent weeks as part of a sweeping investigation into the anonymous trading of child porn over the Internet.

Lori Bauer, of High Bridge, was arrested last month for allegedly sexually assaulting a child and producing child porn. News 12 New Jersey learned Wednesday that her arrest was part of a much larger investigation. 

According to James Hayes, of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, Bauer was charged with producing and distributing child pornography.

The other defendants include a police chief, a paramedic, a rabbi and a Boy Scout leader.

ICE, which led a five-week multi-agency investigation, announced charges against 70 men and Bauer during a news conference Wednesday. 

Officials say "Operation Caireen," named after the mythical goddess who protects children, is one of the largest local roundups ever of individual consumers of child porn. Agents say it is a stark reminder that they come from all segments of society.

Consuming child porn "is not something that is just done by unemployed drifters who live in their parent's basement," Hayes says, adding that otherwise productive members of society can be perpetrators as well.

ICE agents worked with state and local agencies to round up the suspected child predators. Investigators posed as predators in order to gain access to the networks used to share the images.

The cyber-dragnet resulted in the seizure of nearly 600 desktop and laptop computers, tablets, smartphones and other devices containing a total of 175 terabytes of storage.

Tens of thousands of pornographic images and videos were collected.

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 if it can identify children using databases of known victims.