Man arrested on porn charge

BURBANK — An eight- month-long federal investigation led to the arrests of 50 men, one of whom lives in Burbank, on charges of possession of child pornography, officials said.

Jamil Rateb Maleeh, 29, of Burbank, was arrested Tuesday and indicted on one count of possession of child pornography on Aug. 8, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Federal authorities discovered that Maleeh and the other men were using peer-to-peer networks to share graphic videos and images of children, officials said.

“We are dealing with a complicated effort over a number of months,” Assistant U.S. Atty. Joey Blanch said. “There will be more people indicted.”

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the FBI carried out the probe, in which computers storing child pornography and sharing it through peer-to-peer networks were tracked down using software.

Users of the networks — such as Limewire or Bearshare — share files on the Internet with other users. Law enforcement officials log on to the networks and identified people who had used the networks to distribute child pornography.

“We’re talking horrendous images . . .  just a mouse click away,” said Virginia Kice, spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The department targets people who are illegally accessing child pornography over land borders and also arrests those who get child pornography through “virtual borders,” Kice said.

“The bottom line is over the last 20 years a bulk of child pornography was distributed through the mail,” she said.