Federal law enforcement officials made seven arrests this Tuesday, after an eight-month investigation that linked 52 California residents to a child pornography ring. According to the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles, the 52 suspects used peer-to-peer services to exchange child pornographic images and videos.

The investigation was led by the U.S. immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, while a number of other agencies also contributed to the coordinated effort of stopping peer-to-peer sharing of child pornography.

All defendants are charged with possession of child pornography, while some of them have also been charged with additional offenses (production of child pornography and committing crimes while registered sex offenders.)

According to the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Thomas P. O’Brien, “as criminals exploit technology to commit their crimes – whether it be identity theft, money laundering, distribution of child pornography, or any other criminal conduct – law enforcement will quickly react to develop equally sophisticated means to track down their wrongdoing.”

Among the 52 people charged with child pornography was 48-year-old Eric David Lacey, who was featured among America’s Most Wanted. According to police reports, Lacey was living above a daycare facility in Hollywood while being sought in a child pornography case out of North Dakota.

Law enforcement agencies are currently working on tracking down computers that store child pornography and make it available through peer-to-peer networks, a common method currently used to share this type of files.

The charges of possession of child pornography can lead to a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison for the 52 persons, or a minimum of 10 years of for those who have previously been convicted of a child exploitation crime.