Four Leicestershire men have been identified as suspected members of one of the world's largest paedophile rings.
The suspects, whose computers have been seized, are thought to have been members of the now-closed Boylover website, which paedophiles are said to have used to trade indecent images and films of children.
The website was brought down by the UK's Child Exploitation Online Protection Centre (Ceop), whose detectives had infiltrated it posing as sex offenders.
Ceop said this week that information gained from the site had led to the arrest of 184 people in countries including the UK, Netherlands, Australia, Italy, Canada, New Zealand and Thailand.
More than 200 children had been rescued from potentially abusive situations, it said.
Yesterday, Leicestershire police's Paedophile Online Investigation Team (Polit) said the investigation had identified four local suspects.
Three men have been arrested and released on police bail while inquiries continue.
A fourth suspect is serving a prison sentence for sexually abusing children and possession of child pornography.
The Leicestershire suspects' details have not been released. However, Ceop said the 121 British suspects were aged between 17 and 82 and included police officers, Scout leaders and teachers.
Det Sgt Ed Jones, who leads Polit, said: "We do have cases which have been passed over by Ceop in relation to the Boylover network.
"We've executed warrants and arrested some individuals and they remain on bail while we examine their computers."
Speaking on Wednesday, Ceop said the website, which was operated via the Netherlands, came to light three years ago.
It appeared to be a forum where people discussed their shared sexual interest in children without necessarily breaking any laws.
However, Ceop said its investigation had established members used the site to establish contact with each other and then went on to share illegal images and films of children.
Peter Davies, head of Ceop, said: "The scale and success of Operation Rescue has broken new ground.
"Not only is it one of the largest operations of its kind to date, it also demonstrates the impact of international law enforcement agencies working together with one single objective – to safeguard children and bring offenders to justice."
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