Two men and five women were arrested in Longgang District on May 24 for being allegedly involved in an online pornography network that served overseas Internet users, the police said at a press briefing Wednesday.

Shenzhen police started an investigation into a ring that provided images and live performances of a sexual nature after being tipped off by an unidentified Taiwan Internet user in April. The police was told that the ring was based in Shenzhen but it served only overseas clients, mostly from Hong Kong and Taiwan.

The ring rsn about 12 Web sites, which were only accessible from computers outside the mainland, a Daily Sunshine report said Thursday, adding that only registered members of the Web sites could view the content.

One of the women caught, identified as Su Mouqing, 30, from Guizhou Province, served as an agent for a group of young women. Su was responsible for finding women to give sexually provocative performances in front of webcams, while the two men, whose identities were not disclosed by the police, were in contact with the group's heads in Taiwan and Hong Kong.

The group's overseas bosses would send Su a monthly payment depending on the user traffic. Su would then pass on part of the money to the young women who worked for her.

After two months of investigation, police raided two apartments in Buji and Shawan on May 24, and seized seven ring members, four of whom were pole dancing in front of cameras. Seven desktop computers and one laptop, 12 bank cards, 50,000 yuan (US$6,469) and US$4,000 in cash were also confiscated during the raid.

Su and the two men will be charged with criminal offenses while the other four women were detained for involvment in pornographic activities, according to police.

Editor: Yan