"It goes much further than child pornography," Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said. "It is sexual abuse of children." Operation Protector, a month-long investigation, uncovered tens of thousands of images of child porn.
"We are dealing with 42,000 images of the abuse of children," Judd said.
Some of the images were of 2-year-olds.
Several of the accused were taken from the Polk County Sheriff's Office to a waiting van to be transported to jail.
While walking to the van, one of the men charged, Justin Hlibechuk, told reporters he had several DVDs containing child pornography and that he believes he has a problem.
He said he was abused as a child and raped by his brother but that it was no excuse for what he did.
Hlibechuk, 22, of Lakeland, was charged with 13 counts of possession of child pornography.
Also facing charges is Paul Fazio, 68, of Davenport, who worked in a gift shop at Disney World's Animal Kingdom, Judd said.
Fazio was charged with 50 counts of possession and one count of promotion of child pornography.
Also charged:
- Jon Boyd, 39, of Winter Haven, charged with 40 counts of possession and one count of promotion of child pornography.
- Jason Copeland, 28, of Lakeland, charged with 50 counts of possession and one count of promotion of child pornography.
- William Dukes, 54, of Davenport, charged with 50 counts of possession and one count of promotion of child pornography.
- Edward Finneran, 63, of Lakeland, charged with 50 counts of possession of child pornography.
- Calvin Fritch, 49, of Winter Haven, charged with 50 counts of possession and one count of promotion of child pornography.
- Andrew Hilson, 65, of Davenport, charged with 50 counts of possession of child pornography.
- Craig Johnston, 63, of Auburndale, charged with 10 counts of possession of child pornography.
- John Mihalek, 54, of Lakeland, charged with 50 counts of possession of child pornography.
- Allan Roth, 77, of Lakeland, charged with 40 counts of possession and one count of promotion of child pornography.
- Forrest "Clay" Silas, 48, of Lakeland, charged with two counts of possession and one count of promotion of child pornography.
- Frank Unum, 66, of Lakeland, charged with 50 counts of possession and one count of promotion of child pornography.
- James White, 26, of Lakeland, charged with one count of possession and one count of promotion of child pornography.
Each charge carries bail of $5,000, deputies say.
"Some of these men knew each other," a sheriff's office news release states. "In fact, one of the suspects led detectives to three others.
When detectives served a search warrant at Jason Copeland's residence, they were able to obtain probable cause to then serve search warrants at the residence of John Mihalek and Edward Finneran, who live together, and Justin Hlibechuk's residence as well."
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