ORLANDO, Fla. -- Channel 9 was there when vice investigators arrested three Orlando Weekly employees Friday. They claim the paper accepted ads that doubled as fronts for prostitution. Vice investigators said they've spent the last two years building their case and, at one point investigators even posed as prostitutes.

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PREVIOUS REPORT: Investigators Send Letters About Adult Ads

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Agents from the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation hope it puts an end to what they call full service prostitution. They call the newspaper the only vehicle to sell illegal escort services.

Just before 1:00pm Friday, MBI agents led three Orlando Weekly employees in handcuffs from a downtown hotel where they were holding a job fair. MBI agents spent the last two years posing as prostitutes looking to place ads in the newspaper. The indictment filed Friday alleges those ads were accepted.

"We can say, without a doubt, the advertisement staff, the ones who take the money in for the advertisements, had knowledge the ads were being placed by supposed prostitutes. No doubt," said Cmdr. Paul Zambouros, MBI.

The MBI estimates those ads brought the Orlando Weekly almost $2.5 million in profits over the last five years.

Director of classified advertising Jarrell Martin, 43, is charged with making money from the proceeding of prostitution. Account executives Katherine Miller and Christopher Whiting face similar charges.

As Channel 9 first reported Thursday, agents earlier sent letters to the publisher of the Orlando Weekly and its parent company. Agents even showed the newspaper executives some of their advertisers had been arrested for prostitution and ordered the company to stop accepting the ads.

A similar MBI campaign 11 years ago curbed the number of escort ads for awhile. Agents said the arrests made this time were a last resort.

"It's telling that in 1996, once they decided to leave the escorts' section, 100s of escorts disappeared because there's no way escorts can survive without advertising," Zambouros said.

Friday afternoon the Orlando Weekly released the following statement: "Orlando Weekly believes these arrests are an outrageous abuse of process and an attempt to sensor the first amendment rights of a newspaper that has reported critically on the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation. We are in the process of reviewing the charges and retaining counsel."

If the three arrested Friday are convicted, they face up to a year in jail.