Federal, state and local law enforcement authorities arrested 18 people across Rhode Island Wednesday in a child pornography sweep.
Seventeen of the suspects were arraigned on charges of possession of child pornography. One faces a drug charge.
Investigators said they expect to make more arrests.
Investigators said one of the defendants was a city worker, one was a former Navy man and others were business owners. Two of the suspects were juveniles.
One of the defendants was Shawn Fay, was a Little League coach and was a co-owner of Regal Reptiles in Providence. Police searched his North Scituate home, found a number of exotic animals and condemned the home.
"There were two pythons, two ferrets, an alligator, scorpians and consistent with that many animals in such a small proximity. There was a lot of be concerned with regarding feces and filth in general," said Chief David Ranfall.
Ten teams totaling more than 100 agents fanned out across the state in "Operation Safe Child" with search warrants for 20 residences.
Investigators said the homes were identified as actively involved in obtaining and sharing images of child pornography on the Internet.
"The images and videos that our task force had to watch to secure and build these cases are disgusting, reprehensible and can only be valued by a corrupted mind," state police Col. Brendan Doherty said.
State Attorney General Patrick Lynch said state police used software called Operation Fairplay to search peer-to-peer networks and indentify users who were exchanging high volumes of pornographic images.
Arrested and charged with possession of child pornography were:
Michael Wallace, 24, of Pascoag
Alan Alarcon, 18, of Providence
Shawn Fay, 39, of North Scituate, a co-owner of Regal Reptiles in Providence and a Little League coach
Robert MacGregor, 48, of Pawtucket
Girard Proux, 43, of Pawtucket
George Dubuque III, 21, of Wakefield
Jeffrey Earl, 22, of Wakefield
Miguel Escobedo, 38, of Providence
Paul Hutchinson, 27, of Barrington
Joshua Page, 18, of Jamestown
Kyle Bannister, 19, of Richmond
Michael Woodard, 19, of North Kingstown
Jason Bidondi, 35, of Central Falls
Jason Demelo, 33, of Warwick
Cory Bergeron, 19, of Coventry
Juvenile, 17, of Pascoag
Juvenile, 17, of West Warwick
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