Two friends who are both Level 2 sex offenders in the Boston-area have been busted for alleged child pornography, according to Mass State Police.

Chelsea man Timothy Brown, 38, was arrested and charged with child pornography after police found thousands of photos and videos consisting of child sexual abuse material on his phone.

The Level 2 sex offender — who has been convicted twice for indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 years of age — was nabbed at his Chelsea apartment on Saturday. Brown was booked at the State Police Revere Barracks for possession of child pornography.

This arrest by the State Police Detective Unit for Suffolk County came on the heels of the unit’s midweek arrest of Revere man Kenneth Higgins, 45, on child pornography charges. Higgins is a longtime Level 2 sex offender.

During the investigation involving Higgins, troopers developed evidence that led them to get a search warrant for Brown’s apartment in Chelsea.

The State Police detectives and the MSP Cyber Crimes Unit then executed that warrant and seized several electronic devices belonging to Brown. Troopers determined that Higgins and Brown are friends.

A subsequent search of a memory card by a Cyber Crimes Unit trooper uncovered more than 700 videos and more than 2,700 photos — the majority containing child sexual abuse material.

Brown was being held in lieu of $100,000 cash bail, and will be arraigned next week in Chelsea District Court.

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The earlier arrest of Higgins resulted in him being ordered held without bail for violating his probation from a previous case by re-offending.

The State Police investigation uncovered hundreds of images and videos of child sexual abuse material on his phone. Higgins was charged with possession of child pornography and possession of child pornography, third offense.

He has multiple prior convictions for possession of child sexual abuse materials. He’s currently on probation imposed following a prison sentence he served for a 2008 child pornography conviction.

The investigation was launched after Mass State Police got a cyber tip provided by Yahoo to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). The tip included several picture files depicting child pornography and data related to the IP address that accessed the picture files. NCMEC referred the tip to MSP.

When troopers found Higgins’ phone, he allegedly refused to provide a passcode to open the phone. But a trooper was able to retrieve its memory card through the court authorized search. The hundreds of images and videos of child sexual abuse material were then extracted from the card.