U.S. authorities in Puerto Rico said Tuesday they have arrested a Roman Catholic priest on charges including sexual trafficking of minors in the first federal case of its kind in the U.S. territory.

Ivan Ortiz, spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said 58-year-old Israel Berrios was a priest in the Diocese of Caguas, south of the capital of San Juan. He said the priest was arrested in the northern town of Naranjito.

Ortiz said the investigation is ongoing and that more arrests are possible. Authorities have not yet given details of the case.

Puerto Rico prosecutors also filed charges of lewd acts against Berrios.

Officials at the Diocese of Caguas said the bishop was not immediately available for comment, but Berrios himself told reporters he was at peace in a brief statement as he entered a courthouse.

"Although my hands and feet are handcuffed, there are other people who are imprisoned by their conscience," he said without elaborating.

Berrios is the first priest to face federal sex charges of this kind in Puerto Rico, though local prosecutors are investigating at least 17 other priests and four dioceses facing similar allegations.

Prosecutors have already charged one of six defrocked priests from the Diocese of Arecibo with committing lewd acts. Edwin Antonio Mercado Viera is scheduled to appear in court in late May.

The Diocese of Arecibo is fighting a request from Puerto Rico's justice department to obtain confidential documents related to the sex abuse probe and the island's Supreme Court recently agreed to hear the case. Officials of the diocese argue they have already provided sufficient information and seek to protect the identity of those who made the allegations.