Miami, Nov 3 (IANS/EFE): Fifty people were arrested in Orlando, Florida, in an operation targeting paedophiles who contacted minors via the Internet.

The Orange County Sheriff's Office said that Operation SpiderWeb was carried out by placing online announcements offering "fun" with children at private locations and making appointments with those interested in such activity at houses where undercover officers pretended to be parents/pimps.

Those arrested include a pastor, a Disney World employee, a doctor and a federal corrections officer.

The arrested people communicated with the undercover officers via the Internet and came to a house in Orange County with the aim of having sex with minors, authorities said.

When the suspects arrived at the house they were met at the door by an undercover officer and when they entered the residence they were immediately arrested.

"We are sending a clear message that we will not tolerate this," Sheriff Jerry Demings said.

The arrested people, whose ages varied between 19 and 67, often looked at Internet sites associated with minors. Seventeen of them live in Orange County and the rest traveled from other US states.

Most of them were released after posting bail.