Police tape at the site of a crime.John Lehmann/The Globe and Mail
Eight Alberta men face child exploitation charges following a lengthy investigation that found images police say depicted extreme sexual abuse of children – some as young as six months.
The investigation by Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams (ALERT) included help from the RCMP, as well as from police in Medicine Hat, Calgary and Lethbridge.
It focused on high-level targets who allegedly were sharing and distributing a vast collection of child sexual exploitation photos and videos.
Police say they seized 85 computers that included 100,000 pornographic images.
Investigators have no evidence that any of the children were from Alberta or that any sexual assaults took place in the province.
The suspects are between 27 and 60 years old and include six men from Calgary, one from Sherwood Park, Alta., and another from Chipman, Alta.
The face charges of possessing, accessing, and making available child pornography.