Something was peculiar about the gardening news group.
Internet users discussing the seemingly innocuous topics of plants and motoring were encrypting files so others couldn't see it. The sheer volume of material on the site was odd.
Their suspicions raised, Internal Affairs inspectors in Wellington infiltrated the site. Over three months they uncovered a vast secretive child pornography ring in Australia, United States, Canada and Europe.
The site sold made-to-order movies, satisfying the perverts' specific preferences for age, appearance, and sexual position.
Officers found images with the victims holding a piece of paper with the name of the customer - a personal trophy.
It also offered live violent sex abuse. The victims were as young as two.
Forty children have been rescued from sex slavery, a core group of 22 network members arrested, four commercial child pornography websites shut down, and a further 100 people who bought the pornography also nabbed.
The covert international operation, codenamed Operation Achilles, began in 2005, when Internal Affairs officers began to monitor the site.
Censorship compliance manager Steve O'Brien said the paedophiles considered themselves the most sophisticated of child pornographers.
They were paranoid and security was tight; they quizzed any newcomer with tests such as: "What is the name of this [child pornographic] image?"
"The volume of material [being distributed by the group] was phenomenal. It kept two of us going fulltime."
The group also watched law enforcement authorities closely and analysed how to stay beneath the radar. They used several layers of encryption, background checks and secret passwords to hide members' identities.
"They classed themselves as the most sophisticated group out there," Mr O'Brien said.
The network had more than 400,000 child abuse films and images on their computers. Many were sadomasochistic.
The men messaged each other, freely offering pictures. "These girls are heavily drugged ... to move or resist.
Three girls, the first one being the youngest, around eight or nine years old," Australian broadcaster ABC reported that one said.
Another wrote: "My thanks to you and all the others that together make this the greatest group of pedo's to ever gather in one place. I'm honoured just to be part of it."
By January 2006, the Internal Affairs team was fairly certain that one of the key ringleaders was Australian - their vernacular of "G'day" and "Bloody awful" a clear giveaway - and called in Queensland police's specialist child abuse investigation team.
It was an investigation that was to span the globe, involving world agencies in what authorities say is unprecedented collaboration.
By July, Queensland police alerted the international law enforcement agency network that a video dubbed "the Daphne and Irene" video showing the repeated rape of two girls aged 11 and nine, probably originated in Europe.
That same month, their 35-year-old Belgian father was arrested, and both children removed from risk.
The man had 150 videos of his children.
Last Friday, detectives around the world swooped, arresting 22 key players including two Australians, two from Britain, four Germans, and 12 Americans.
Mr O'Brien said no New Zealanders were in the core group, though one had tried to join while overseas.
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