A Bend Police cruiser.

Bend police arrested 20 people over a monthslong sting operation meant to crack down on child sex crimes in Central Oregon.

Those arrested, who come from across the region and are between the ages of 20 and 73, face a slew of charges for attempting to lure and have sex with minors, according to a press release.

Half of the people arrested are from Bend, police reported. Five of the people are from Redmond. The other five are from Sisters, La Pine, Prineville, Madras and Oxnard, California.

About a dozen officers were involved in the investigation, and police conducted the arrests in motels, parking lots, parks and other places across town, according to Bend Police spokeswoman Sheila Miller.

Police also arrested eight more people on adult prostitution charges, six of whom are from Bend, the release said. They were cited and released after being charged with a misdemeanor.

During an investigation from May 19 through Aug. 23, police posted online advertisements and posed as minors over texts and phone calls, the press release said. Police reportedly received more than 200 calls from different phone numbers responding to the advertisements.

Miller said the ads were posted on websites and apps specifically used by people seeking prostitutes.

Police identified themselves as minors, and many of the callers “immediately” cut off communication, the release said. Others agreed to meet and were arrested and booked in the Deschutes County jail. Some face additional charges because they brought drugs or alcohol with them to give to the officers posing as youths.

Yet police reported that “of the 200-plus people who answered Bend Police’s online ads and learned of a minor child being trafficked for sex, not one subsequently shared that information with law enforcement.”

At the beginning of the project, police were inundated with calls from people who saw the ads. By August, they were receiving fewer. Police also reported seeing fewer sex workers around town and seeing fewer advertisements on the websites they were using.

As the investigation unfolded, “multiple” people reported to police that they were victims of the accused. Police also reported that during the investigation, the demand for sex work and the amount of sex workers in the region declined.

The following are the 20 people embroiled in the police investigation into child sex crimes in Central Oregon.

• Mathieu Ackah, 46, of Oxnard, California.

• Christopher Arroway, 30, of Bend.

• Gage Bergeron, 31, of Bend.

• David Burnham, 73, of Bend.

• Forrest Dodge, 28, of Bend.

• Cody Fortune, 32, of Bend.

• Ryan Frye, 23, of Bend.

• Rene Hernandez, 28, of Bend.

• Joshua Huddleston, 45, of Bend.

• James Kapsalis, 26, of Redmond.

• Miles Leffler, 40, of Sisters.

• Devin Linker, 34, of Redmond.

• Ian McCord, 38, of Prineville.

• Jorge Beltran Mendoza, 29, of Redmond.

• Waynerd Montgomery, 47, of Redmond.

• Jacob Schneider, 36, of Bend.

• Connor Strupith, 22, of Redmond.

• Isaac Testerman, 41 of Bend.

• Eduardo Vega-Ruiz, 22, of Madras.

• Dylan Zook, 20, of La Pine.

Police are asking the public to report any further allegations against these people to the nonemergency dispatch: 541-693-6911.