The has arrested five key members of the network in the Ukraine and has shutdown their online activities.

Being hailed as "the most sophisticated international investigation of its type," authorities from six countries worked together in Operation Basket to investigate the criminal organisation responsible for the advertisement and distribution of about 230 child exploitation websites.

The sites were selling commercial access to images and videos of children as young as three years old who had been subject to child sexual abuse, according to a statement from the AFP.

The operation began following leads from a United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigation, which had been underway since 2006. It ultimately identified 30,000 customers in 132 countries and led to hundreds of convictions in the United States, and 11 arrests in Belarus in 2008.

Chairman of the VGT and Australian Federal Police (AFP) national manager of high tech crime operations, Neil Gaughan, said the operation owed its success to international cooperation between agencies.