Seventy two people are now charged with using an online service called "Dreamboard."
ABC7 investigative reporter Chuck Goudie has learned that a suburban Chicago man is among those in custody.
When police in southwest suburban Burbank were called in to assist in the child porn arrest of Billy Jewell, they realized he had been on their radar for years.
Jewell, now 42, was among those arrested at the end of a 20-month investigation by federal authorities.
The case targeted an Internet club that had one membership requirement: you had to provide child pornography to be accepted.
"For the children they victimized this was nothing short of a nightmare," said U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.
The case is so horrendous that it drew Attorney General Holder and Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano to announce the charges Wednesday.
Besides the U.S., authorities say this international child porn network was active from Canada to South America, Europe, the Middle East and the South Pacific.
"Membership status was upgraded for those who produced and shared their own child porn and videos," said Napolitano.
Operation Delego, as the FBI calls it, resulted in 72 men charged and 52 arrested thus far. There have already been more than a dozen guilty pleas.
Police in Burbank tell the I-Team that they assisted in the arrest of a man known in the federal indictment as John Doe #4 on July 14th at his residence there.
William A. Jewell used the alias Andrew Billy Jewell and Vladimir Putin, a name investigators say he used on the child porn bulletin board.
Jewell is in custody in Louisiana where the federal case was based.
"We are also sending a strong message to those who are willing to harm and exploit children and who attempt to hide their activities from law enforcement. We will find you, we will stop you, and we will bring you to justice," said Holder.
Dreamboard featured the equivalent of 16,000 DVDs filled with porn showing kids under 12, some of them infants.
Also on Wednesday in Chicago, there was a long federal prison sentence given in a previous child porn case involving Darrick Boroczk, 34, of Wheeling. He was arrested two years ago after the feds found images of him sexually abusing young children. Boroczk was sentenced to 70 years.
