POLICE have arrested 24 people as part Operation Ore, the worldwide hunt for paedophiles.
The announcement by Cleveland Police completes the first phase of one of the biggest investigations into Internet child abuse, which started when the FBI passed on details of people who had paid to access illegal pornographic websites.
Cleveland was the last force in the region to announce arrest figures.
Other forces in the North-East have already detained all of their targets.
There were 61 in the Northumbria Police area, 22 in Durham and 36 in North Yorkshire, bringing the total amount of arrests in the region to 143.
In Cleveland, officers said they had seized 60 computers and vast quantities of distressing images of children aged between six months to 16 years old being abused.
The number of obscene images ranged from a dozen to more than 50,000.
Those arrested, including one woman, range in age from their early 20s to their 60s.
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