Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright, solicitor Trey Gowdy and state attorney general Henry McMaster will announce Wednesday morning that the Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office has joined the state Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

The attorney general and State Law Enforcement Division formed the task force last year, after a new law went into effect to protect children from Internet predators.

McMaster says, "Under the law that our General Assembly passed, and it's an excellent law, it specifically says that if the predator believes that he is talking to a child, then he is guilty of the crime of sexual solicitation over the Internet, even if that child turns out to be a full-grown police officer."

The task force has caught five Internet predators, even though SLED has only one agent assigned to it full-time. The Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office will be assigning one of its officers to the task force full-time.

"They're already set up. They're in a law enforcement agency," McMaster says. "So all we have to do is train them and give them some fancy equipment, and point them in the right direction, help them with questions, and then we can work with them and multiply our firepower dramatically."