Authorities nabbed 71 individuals on child pornography charges Wednesday in what is considered as one of the largest arrests in the New York city area.

The 71 arrested included police officers, a nanny and a Boy Scout den leader.

Nearly 600 desktop and laptop computers, tablets, smartphones and other devices were seized in the sting and the voluminous evidence found caused authorities to state that the sexual exploitation of children in New York City has reached "epidemic proportions".

Like Us on Facebook

Thousands of disturbing images confiscated showed children as young as three years old being sexually abused.

"These crimes are hideous. And reasonable people cannot fathom such depravity," James Hayes Jr., the head of the New York office of Homeland Security Investigations, said at a press conference Wednesday.

Child pornographers have a tendency to trade images like baseball cards with more graphic images being the highest in demand and therefore the most traded.

This helps investigators in capturing perpetrators as they can catch one pedophile and trace more from there.

In this case, a police chief and a rabbi were the first to be arrested for sharing files and the investigation proceeded from there, leading to the detainment of more culprits.

Police launched the investigation after discovering that more than 3,000 web users in New York City were searching for pornographic images involving children at any given time.

Investigators went on certain sites and pretended to be users looking for images and videos of child porn and were able to pinpoint and make contact with pedophiles on the prowl.

Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch released a statement to the press stating she hopes that the arrests will send an "unequivocal message to those who engage in trading child pornography: if you exploit our children, and their abuse, you will be investigated and prosecuted to the full extent of the law".