HALIFAX - Two crewmen on an oil tanker that was in the Port of Halifax this week are in custody after customs officers found child pornography on a pair of laptop computers.

Jose Ervin Mahigne Porquez, 37, and Ernesto Fadol Basanes, 43, both of the Philippines, were arrested Monday during a search of the M/T Negotiator and charged with violating the Customs Act by smuggling prohibited goods.

If convicted, the men could be deported and fined up to $1,000.

They were arraigned in Dartmouth provincial court Tuesday and return to court Friday for a bail hearing.

Laurie Gillmore, a spokeswoman for the Canada Border Services Agency, said one of the seized laptops contained pornographic pictures of boys and girls as young as eight. The other had images of children possibly as young as 12.

"A lot of it is quite disturbing," she said.

Gillmore said agents routinely search electronic devices for any kind of prohibited material.

She said it was not uncommon for them to find graphic pornographic images.

Gillmore said the border agents used a special software program that calls up images on a laptop "that someone may have tried to hide."

The ship has left port.

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