LEWISTON – More than a dozen Mainers are under investigation after an undercover sting investigation into the largest known commercial child pornography business uncovered in the United States.

The couple who ran the business in Texas has been sentenced to federal prison, and 100 customers nationwide have been arrested.

As part of the investigation, the names of customers in Maine have been referred to state and federal agencies.

So far, 12 state and two federal search warrants have been issued in Maine, and one suspect was indicted in state court and another was summoned to U.S. District Court, Maine Attorney General Steven Rowe said.

Rowe, who was joined by federal, state and local officials at a news conference, said people who log onto Web sites featuring child pornography should realize there are human victims behind the images.

“Each time you look at it, you’re furthering the acts of abuse,” he said. “I’m not sure people fully appreciate that.”

All told, Landslide Productions Inc., an Internet company owned by Thomas and Janice Reedy in Texas, had at least 250,000 subscribers. At least 164 of them were identified as being from Maine, Rowe said.

Called Operation Avalanche, the undercover operation was based on intelligence developed from the Landslide investigation and encompassed 30 federally funded task forces formed to combat Internet crimes against children.

In Maine, 44 seized computers will be analyzed by the Maine Computer Crimes Task Force, which is part of the Northern New England Regional Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

People who stumbled onto the Web site are not being targeted, but those who registered and purchased child pornography will be prosecuted, Rowe said.