More than three years after being caught up in a statewide child pornography sweep, a defendant from Neptune City heads to prison for four years.

Steven Anan (NJ Atty. General's Office)
Steven Anan (NJ Atty. General's Office)
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Steven J. Anan, 56, was sentenced today in a Trenton federal courtroom for his June guilty plea to a second-degree distribution charge, according to the office of New Jersey Attorney General Christopher S. Porrino.

Anan was ordered to register as a sex offender under Megan's Law, under terms overseen by Deputy Attorney General Marie McGovern.

He was one of 24 adults and one juvenile male arrested February 21, 2013, in the course of Operation Ever Vigilant, a three-month probe that included New Jersey State Police and the U.S. Postal Service.

Anan admitted using file-share software, reproducing salacious images and placing them in a shared folder for access by anyone capable of downloading them, authorities said.

The trail to Anan's internet-provider address started with three porn videos downloaded by the New Jersey State Police Digital Technology Investigations Unit (DTIU), while monitoring a file-sharing network frequented by sex offenders.

Investigators said the videos displayed prepubescent girls, one an infant, being forced into intercourse with adult men.

State police equipped with a search warrant scanned Anan's laptop and found more than 90 pornographic images and videos, authorities said.

Anyone who knows of, or suspects, web-based child pornography distribution, inappropriate web-based adult-child contact, or sexual exploitation of children, can report it to the New Jersey Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, 888-648-6007.

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