MONTREAL - The Surete du Quebec has arrested four people across the province that allegedly created and swapped child pornography as part of an international network.
A fifth suspect is still at large.
Sgt. Ronald McInnis says the provincial police investigation began in December 2011, when the force was tipped off about the five Quebecers by police in Amsterdam.
The next step will be confiscating computers and going through the contents.
"We are going to work on the computer of these persons try to find those files and try to know if they have some more exchange with more persons," said McInnis.
Police in the Netherlands had arrested a child abuse suspect named Robert Mikelsons a year earlier, and when authorities investigated his computer they found evidence he was exchanging child pornography with people in Quebec.
Tuesday morning officers from the SQ, along with officers from the Quebec City and Gatineau police forces, arrested men in Montreal, Quebec City, Gatineau, Saint-Roch-de-l'Achigan, and Repentigny.
The four men, aged between 29 and 60, face a range of charges of that include producing, possessing and distributing child pornography. Police had initially said five men were being sought but they revised that number later in the day, without explaining why.
In Montreal, David Meunier, 56, was arraigned on three charges -- possession, accessing and producing child pornography.
Meunier, who has no previous criminal record, was released under a long list of conditions that forbid him from being alone with minors under 16, accessing the Internet, or using an Internet-enabled device.
He returns to court on April 10.
Three other men were arrested on Tuesday: a 29-year-old man in Gatineau, near Ottawa; a 47-year-old man in Quebec City and a 60-year-old man in St-Roch-de-L'Achigan, north of Montreal. It was not immediately clear whether the other three had appeared in court.
Former daycare worker and babysitter Mikelsons faces numerous charges involving more than 50 young victims. The Dutch investigation has produced thousands of pictures and videos as well as information linking back to several countries.
Mikelsons, 29, a Latvian national, was arrested in December 2010 and charged with sexually abusing and photographing children in his care.
Once a worker in a Kenyan orphanage, he is believed to have been a central figure behind an exchange network involving people around the world.
Quebec provincial police said they began investigating in this country in December 2011 when police in Amsterdam provided information alleging five people in Quebec were in contact with Mikelsons.
"The only thing we know is that we believe they were part of the international exchange ring led by Mikelsons," said Sgt. Genevieve Bruneau, a police spokesperson.
Prosecutors and police didn't have much to say about the investigation.
It wasn't immediately clear if the Quebec men knew each other, but the charge of producing child pornography indicates police believe some victims could be from Quebec.
Bruneau said they'll know more once they've gone through the computers and hard drives they seized Tuesday.
"After analyzing the materials we seized, we'll be able to tell if other arrests are possible," Bruneau said.
With a report from The Canadian Press
