Washington ? Little League coaches, two Catholic priests, six other clergy members, a teacher’s aide, a school bus driver and at least one police officer are among the 89 people charged with participating in an Internet site where hard-core child pornography was traded, federal authorities said Monday.

Forty arrests in 20 states had been made as of Monday, among them that of an East Texas man alleged to have set up the “Candyman” site visited by more than 7,000 people until its shutdown last year during an investigation initiated by the Houston FBI office. Fifty more arrests will occur this week and the investigation is ongoing, said Bruce Gebhardt, an FBI executive assistant director.

“I’d like to see one sweep a day,” Gebhardt said. “We want to keep the pressure up on all these people.”

“It is clear that a new marketplace for child pornography has emerged in the dark corners of cyberspace,” Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft told a news conference at FBI headquarters. However, he added, the arrests prove “there will be no free rides on the Internet for traffickers of child pornography.”

The effort targeted members of three Internet discussion groups on Yahoo! Inc.’s Web site, including one called “Candyman.”

All three Internet groups have been shut down. Investigators declined to identify the other two groups by name, saying it might interfere with efforts to trace suspects through their e-mail addresses.

The man alleged to have set up the “Candyman” e-group in December 2000 Â Mark Bates, a 32-year-old from Palestine, Tex. Â made an initial appearance Monday in federal court in Tyler, Tex., federal authorities said. He is among eight people charged in a 10-count federal indictment unsealed Monday in Houston.

Bates was arrested without incident Monday by Dallas FBI agents, said spokeswoman Lori Bailey.

Also indicted were seven Texans alleged to have subscribed to the site, ranging in age from 20 to 61.

All eight in the Houston indictment were charged with a single count of conspiracy to knowingly transport, receive and distribute child porn via computer, which carries a maximum 15 years’ imprisonment and $250,000 fine. Bates alone was charged with a single count of knowingly transporting child porn via computer, while the seven others were each charged with one count of receiving child porn by computer  all of which carry a maximum 15-year prison sentence and $250,000 fine. And the seven were also each charged with a single count of possession of materials containing images of child pornography, which carries a maximum five-year sentence and $250,000 fine.

The Houston indictment alleges that Candyman subscribers were polled on questions such as whether they wanted to see more pornographic images of boys or girls; the age at which they first began abusing children; and the number of children they’d molested.

Twenty-seven of those arrested to date have admitted molesting more than 36 children, the FBI said.

Operation Candyman was initiated 14 months ago, after an FBI agent in Houston identified three e-groups involved in posting and exchanging child pornography, the FBI said. The investigation then was broadened to the 55 other FBI field offices around the nation.

Investigators examined the 7,000 Candyman subscribers, which included some 2,400 people living outside the United States, and prioritized which ones to investigate further based upon the frequency with which they downloaded pornographic images as well as their professions, Gebhardt said.

FBI officials in Washington said those charged included a Catholic priest in the St. Louis area and one in Baltimore; a school bus driver in Albany, N.Y.; a teacher in Constable, N.Y.; a preschool teacher’s aide in Las Vegas; a child photographer and an unspecified clergy member in Philadelphia; and a police officer in Pittsburgh.