A newly formed Genesee County Sheriff’s Office task force dubbed GHOST recently arrested 22 people on suspicion of soliciting sex with children in a five-week sting operation.

"We used to worry about children when they were outside the house," Sheriff Robert Pickell said, announcing the arrests Monday from his effort to infiltrate what is sometimes called the dark web. "Now we have to worry about them when they are inside the house, up in their bedroom and browsing on their computer."

GHOST is an acronym for Genesee Human Oppression Strike Team.

Pickell said the suspects represented a wide demographic swath, ranging in age from 25 to 71, and they worked in a variety of jobs, that included fast food and factory workers, a senior bank executive and even a candidate for the U.S. Senate.

In front of the sheriff was a table displaying the knives, guns, drugs, booze and $3,000 in cash that he said the suspects brought to the rendezvous they thought they had set up.

Behind him, were the names and faces of the offenders.

The task force officers posed as 14-year-old boys and girls and had digital conversations with the suspects, agreeing to meet at hotels and motels rooms where the suspects were arrested.

Among the suspects that the sheriff singled out: John Barrows, 71, a Flint financial adviser, who Pickell said was "well respected in the community;" Carl Spradlin, 59, a Comerica Bank senior vice president in charge of compliance; and George Huffman III, 42, a truck driver and a candidate for U.S. Senate.

In two cases, Pickell said, the suspects were pimping out and having sex with their own young children.

In addition to Genesee County, the suspects — all accused of sex crimes involving children — were from Saginaw, Shiawassee, Oakland, Wayne, Lapeer, and Tuscola counties.

Live-streaming of the news organizations from the Sheriff's Office in Flint, however, was stopped just before the sheriff said he would read aloud some of the graphic text message exchanges.

Read more:

Crash at 12 Mile and Gratiot injures 1 person, closes intersection for hours

Graduation gone bad: Salutatorians rip their Detroit charter school

Pickell said he has enough money in his budget to continue busting pedophiles until the end of the year. After that, he hoped that federal grants would continue to support the operation.

"We're not only looking to arrest people," Pickell said, adding that his office is aggressively trying to track down runaways. "We're looking to protect and save children."

And to pedophiles, he warned: "The next time you look into your computer and you don't think anybody is watching, look again because you might see my face at the other end of the computer and the Sheriff's GHOST is right behind me."

Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or fwitsil@freepress.com.