Scharman was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail and made his first appearance in court to the charges on Monday. The Jordan School District said Scharman had been placed on administrative leave in January and his employment was subsequently terminated. McQuiston said ICAC was still investigating to see if he had any inappropriate contact with students.

Most of the people arrested on suspicion of downloading child pornography know the knock on the door is coming. They have been questioned before, their computers have been seized. The arrests can't be made right away because it takes so long to get the forensic lab results back, so ICAC agents keep in regular contact with their suspects.

"In a way we act as their probation agents," Farnsworth said, adding that in one case she had a suspect call her regularly to keep in touch. Some suspects commit suicide rather than be faced with the prospect of prison time, agents said.

Farnsworth drove quickly into the South Salt Lake apartment complex, a convoy of unmarked vehicles behind her. Clad in bulletproof vests with their guns at the ready, the agents moved up to a second-floor apartment and knocked on the door.

"Police! Open up!" officers shouted.

The man answered and the agents ran inside. Eventually, 30-year-old David Simpson was led out in handcuffs. Simpson has been charged with second-degree felony sexual exploitation of a minor, accused of trading images of child pornography.

"The Australian federal police had done an undercover operation and took down a major porn ring," Farnsworth said. "They only had a screen name and they contacted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children."

The center investigated the screen name, leading it to contact the Utah Attorney General's Office. ICAC agents questioned Simpson and seized his computers. Forensic analysis of his computers led to the discovery of illicit images and the arrest warrant. Simpson is scheduled to appear in court on Thursday.

Search and seizure

At an apartment in Murray, agents carried out computer towers, CDs, iPods and a Playstation console as part of a search warrant executed for child porn — anything that could store an image or a file.

Outside the apartment, agents questioned a man and a woman about what may have been downloaded or traded.

"Through investigative software that's out there for law enforcement, we're able to monitor those kinds of things," said ICAC agent Steve Gamvroulas, adding that law enforcement tries to track types of files featuring children that are traded back and forth by people seeking child porn.

There is no typical profile of a child pornography user, Acocks said.

"It can be about anybody," he said, noting that they have arrested schoolteachers, firefighters and other working professionals.

It is difficult to quantify the level of the problem in Utah, but agents say the state is considered "nirvana" for a child predator. Child pornography Web sites are growing rapidly across the globe, and exploitation is a multi-billion-dollar business.

As they wrapped up several days of serving warrants, McQuiston said the computers seized will lead to more warrants.

"It's kind of the end of one part of the investigation," he said. "But it's going to kick up a whole new one."

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E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com