It was an extensive investigation that spanned the globe and resulted in charges against a Toronto man who detectives allege was at the centre of one of the largest child pornography rings they say they have ever seen.

Hundreds of thousand of the images found featured “horrific acts of sexual abuse — some of the worst (officers) have seen,” said Inspector Joanna Beaven-Desjardins, who heads the Toronto police’s sex crimes unit.

Those images — filling 45 terabytes or a stack of paper reaching as tall as 1,500 CN Towers — have, to date, triggered 341 arrests across the globe and led to the rescue of 386 children, police allege.

Officers from around the word involved in the case call it one of the largest and most geographically vast child pornography investigations in the world. About 30 of them from police forces across Ontario, Canada, the U.S., Spain, Mexico and Australia were at Toronto police headquarters for the announcement Thursday morning.

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Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair called its investigation – named Project Spade – an “extraordinary example of international cooperation from law enforcement.”

The probe into the operation known as Azovfilms.com — and its proprietor, 42-year-old Brian Way — began in earnest in October 2010. For three years, detectives in Toronto, investigators in the United States and police overseas have been chasing the people who made the alleged child pornography, and the customers who bought it.

A team of Star reporters had exclusive, behind-the-scenes access to the child exploitation unit of the Toronto Police Services as they brought their three-year investigation to a conclusion.

All in all, 108 were arrested in Canada and another 76 in the United States. Overseas, 164 people face criminal action.

Way faces about two dozen charges of making, possessing, distributing, exporting and selling the explicit images of boys, who range in age from toddlers to teens. The videos, police allege, were edited, packaged and sold from his west Toronto warehouse.

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Among his alleged Canadian clients are a Chatham hockey coach, a Toronto teacher, a priest and Scout leader in Quebec, and a retired high school principal in Nova Scotia.

In the United States, police officers, educators and medical professionals were among the people arrested.

Some people have pleaded guilty and are serving sentences; others remain before the courts, proclaiming their innocence.

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The charges against Way have not yet been proven in court, and he declined repeated requests for an interview. His lawyer, Nyron Dwyer, also declined to comment.

Azovfilms.com was a sophisticated site, police say: it had an Amazon-esque interface, where clients could peruse Top 10 lists and reviews by other customers. There was a searchable catalogue, so those who knew what they wanted could go right to the desired title. And, of course, credit-card payments were accepted.

And the site also had a legal page, where customers were reassured the films were legal — “no film we sell violates Canadian or American law.” (The police must prove, and they have yet to do so, that the videos were for a sexual purpose, rather than artistic merit, in order to build a case for child exploitation.)

Investigators who have seen videos seized from Way’s warehouse after his May 2011 arrest say they feature all boys, all young. Some are very young.

During the raid on Way’s business and residence, police seized 1,000 pieces of evidence: computers, servers, DVD burners, a video editing suite and hundreds of movies.

They also found something that widened the scope of the Project Spade investigation. They discovered Way’s customer list.

Investigators spent the summer of 2011 screening the films, ultimately watching more than 500 of them. They painstakingly logged what they saw, and by the time they were done, they had counted 283,000 images of what they classed as child pornography.

They ultimately focused on more than 150 of the most troubling films. They cross-referenced them with the Azovfilms.com customer records and swooped on the people they believed had bought them.

There were 50 arrests in Ontario. A dozen search warrants were executed in Toronto. And the RCMP got involved, passing on leads to other law enforcement in Canada. Investigations took place around the world.

In Spain, the high-tech crime unit of the Spanish National Police led on the probe they called “Operation Espada.” In all, 42 people were investigated, and 19 children were rescued, said Chief Inspector Luis Garcia. He said looking into the backgrounds of the men who were arrested because of child pornography allegations often led to more serious charges.

“This is a crime which is hidden, and which without this kind of operation we can put to the light,” he said. “We can find hands-on abuse, and we could never have known about this in any other way.”

Way remains in custody. A preliminary inquiry in his case continues next month.