The National Police have arrested 57 people and charged another 24 in connection with the downloading of child pornography in an operation which covered 21 provinces in Spain.
The detainees were involved in sharing images showing young children engaged in sexual acts with adults.
Using the latest tracking technology, police were able to monitor millions of internet connections day and night and locate individuals on a map using GPS. This was despite many of those detained using professional data erasure programs so as to theoretically not leave any trace of their nefarious activities.
Some of the detainees have been arrested during previous investigations into child pornography.
The police investigation was carried out over a one week period and some of the detainees had, in a short time, downloaded as many as 800 pornographic images.