A major joint state and federal investigation has led to the arrests of 14 New Jersey men who allegedly distributed child pornography on the Internet.

The men have been accused of using a file-sharing network on the Internet to distribute the illicit images, which included child rape videos.

According to authorities, the men were arrested over the course of a month: from September 30 to October 24. The suspects live in Bridgeton, Cape May Court House, Egg Harbor, Hamilton, Lower Township, Millville, Pennsauken, Somerset, Trenton, Wrightstown, and Woodstown.

The investigation involved both federal and state agencies, including the NJ Attorney General’s Division of Criminal Justice.

The arrests were part of “Operation Predator Alert,” a major sweep prompted by New Jersey’s new child pornography law, which was signed in August 2013. In a press conference, the acting NJ Attorney General credited the new law for providing law enforcement with the means to crack down on sexual predators that victimize children.

The men who were arrested face serious penalties. The NJ child pornography law aims to curtail the distribution of child pornography through file sharing. The law imposes strict liability on anyone who makes child pornography files available for downloading. If the suspects in this case are convicted of distributing 25 or more child pornography files, they could each be sentenced to as many as five (5) years in state prison. Beyond that, the NJ child pornography law calls for offenders to be subject to Megan’s Law registration requirements for life.

To learn more about this case, see the NewYork.CBSLocal.com article entitled “14 Arrested for Alleged Possession, Distribution of Child Pornography in N.J.“