By all appearances, they were respected and trusted members of their communities — a nurse, a paramedic, a police officer, a police chief, a rabbi, an au pair, a Boy Scout leader.

They were also among 70 New York City-area men and one woman charged after using the internet to collect and trade child porn — one of the largest-ever area busts seeking such predators, officials said on Wednesday. It ended a five-week investigation by the Homeland Security Investigations arm of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

“The sheer volume of confirmed and suspected instances of individuals engaging in the sexual exploitation of children … and the professional backgrounds of many of the defendants is troubling. We can no longer assume the only people who would stoop to prey on children are unemployed drifters,” said James Hayes Jr., head of ICE’s New York office.

Some of the defendants, using search terms such as “real child rape” and “family sex,” had downloaded thousands of images. Authorities issued 87 search warrants and seized nearly 600 desktop and laptop computers, tablets, smartphones and other devices — with more than 175 terabytes of data, including videos and pictures of children.