Five solid tips from people who told authorities that distinctive tattoos helped them recognize a woman seen in photos released Thursday as part of a child molestation investigation led to an arrest in an 11-year-old case involving "widely circulated" child pornography images.

Letha Mae Montemayor, 52, was taken into custody Thursday night outside an apartment complex in North Hills in the San Fernando Valley.

Authorities said they believe the woman is the individual -- identified as "Jane Doe" in a criminal complaint filed Monday -- who appears with an unidentified male in a series of photographs released Thursday afternoon as investigators hunted for leads in the child pornography case.

"Just after ICE’s nationwide plea for public assistance, five separate community tips led to the arrest of Jane Doe," said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director John Morton. "This arrest would not have happened without the public’s help, and it demonstrates how much individual citizens can do to help law enforcement attack crime."

Also on NBCLosAngeles.com: Second suspect arrested in child porn case, ICE says

An appearance in federal court for Montemayor, charged with one count of making child pornography, was scheduled for Monday.

A neighbor of Montemayor's who did not want to be identified said the suspect was a "hoarder" who "did not take care of her body well" and was "rude to all the children."

About 10 hours before her arrest, Morton and other law enforcement agents conducted a news conference regarding "Operation Sunflower," a recently concluded child sex crimes investigation that led to more than 240 arrests. During the news conference, authorities released images of a man and tattooed woman wanted in connection with a child molestation case authorities said occurred about 11 years ago, possibly in Los Angeles.

"The (tipsters) said they recognized the face, the tattoos," said Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge Claude Arnold.

"They were very confident that it was she. We expect that it would be more difficult because they were older images, but we were optimistic because they were good images."

ice.gov

These images released by federal authorities as part of a child porn investigation led to the arrest of a woman in Los Angeles.

The woman's tattoos -- a sleeping cat, butterfly and other designs -- are visible in the photographs released Thursday.

123 child victims of Internet sex abuse identified, US officials say

But other clues in the background of the images, discovered by Chicago Homeland Security agents in 2007 and passed along to LA agents, prompted investigators to focus on locations in the San Fernando Valley. Forensics analysis of the images, conducted by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, revealed details in the pictures, such as close-ups of the tattoos, a calendar from a store and a phonebook.

The criminal complaint alleges that "Jane Doe," now identified as Montemayor, was involved in the production of child pornography images that were "widely circulated" online. The images depict the sexual molestation of a girl, who appears to be about age 13, according to ICE.

Authorities have not identified the victim or male subject.

"We still want the public’s help in identifying John Doe and the victim in the disturbing series of images that continue to be circulated on the Internet," said U.S. Attorney André Birotte.

Call 866-347-2423 or visit this tips form to provide information. Click here to view the ICE wanted poster.

Alex Wong / Getty Images of North America

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton speaks as John Ryan, CEO of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, left, listens during a news conference in Washington on Thursday.

In just over a month, more than 120 sexually exploited children -- one just 19 days old -- were identified in an international operation that found them depicted in child pornography on the Internet, U.S. officials said Thursday.

In Operation Sunflower, led by agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigation unit from Nov. 1 to Dec. 7, 123 victims of child sexual exploitation were identified, ICE Director John Morton said at a press conference in Washington. 

Of that group, 44 children had been living with their abusers, and 79 children were exploited by people outside of their home or were victimized as children and are now adults. Seventy female and 53 male victims rescued; 110 of the victims were identified in 19 U.S. states and the rest were identified in six foreign countries.

“Results [of the operation] were significant but grim, a sad reminder to us all that child online exploitation is a real part of our lives and absolutely demands our full attention,” Morton said. “The rescues highlight the depth and global nature of this problem.”

In the investigation, HSI and partner law enforcement agencies arrested 245 people. Among them were a first-grade teacher from Chula Vista, Calif., and an airline pilot, NBCSanDiego.com reported.

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“As satisfying as the arrests have been, today is a day of mixed emotions because this operation is ultimately a tale of the perverse, pervasive and violent exploitation of children, very young children to satisfy a very dark pleasure of twisted adults,” Morton said. 

Of the victims identified during Operation Sunflower, five were under the age of 3, and one of those was just 19 days old. Thirty others were below the age of 10, officials said.

“The age of the victim has always been a problem. The Internet has just allowed a much greater immediacy to the abuse, and we’re seeing numerous instances of life child abuse that has been streamed over the Internet,” Morton said.

From the results of Operation Sunflower, named after ICE’s first successful case under the new Victim Identification Program, Morton said a few trends emerged.

Most notably, younger children were more often abused and more women were directly involved in carrying out the abuse, he said.

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Additionally, the victims of child sexual exploitation increasingly have an international nexus, said John Ryan, CEO of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

“The problem of child exploitation is hardly confined to the United States,” Ryan said Thursday. “The Internet has made this problem such that almost every case we touch and investigate has a very strong overseas component.”

"We know that there's more work to be done," Ryan said. "Anyone could know these victims, not knowing that they're being harmed. They could be your neighbors' children, your child's classmate, or even your own child."

Morton said the only answer to child exploitation is "a relentless fight."

"Whenever our investigations reveal the production and distribution of new child pornography online, we will do everything we can to rescue the victim and prosecute the abuser, even if takes us years or around the world to do it," he said.

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