NEW YORK — Junk e-mail continued to land in mailboxes around the world yesterday, despite the arrest a day earlier of a man described as one of the world's most prolific spammers.

Even if Robert Alan Soloway is ultimately convicted and his operations shuttered, spam experts say dozens are in line to fill the void.

"In the short term, the effect it's going to have is more symbolic more than anything else," said John Levine, co-author of "Fighting Spam for Dummies." "Soloway is a large spammer, but hardly the only large spammer."

Soloway was arrested Wed-nesday on charges of mail fraud, wire fraud, e-mail fraud, aggravated identity theft and money laundering. Prosecutors say Soloway has sent millions of junk e-mails since 2003 and continued even after Microsoft Corp. won a $7 million civil judgment against him in 2005.

Soloway, dubbed the "Spam King," could face decades in prison, though prosecutors said they have not calculated what sentence range he might face.

What set Soloway apart was his focus on spam designed to sell tools and services for companies and organizations to send their own junk e-mail, said Patrick Peterson, vice president of technology at anti-spam vendor IronPort Systems Inc.

Other types of spam were largely unaffected by the arrest. One Gmail account collected messages yesterday promising deals on Viagra and other medicines, while an AOL account drew an offer for two large, mouthwatering pizzas.