Nine men were arrested on child sex trafficking charges at the 81st annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota, following a weeklong operation.

The investigation, which involved multiple law enforcement agencies started on Aug. 6 and ended Aug. 12, the South Dakota U.S. Attorney’s Office confirmed in a release about the arrests on Tuesday.

All of the men, who ranged in age from 22-54, are now facing felony charges.

Eight of the nine men were from South Dakota and charged with attempted enticement of a minor using the internet, which carries a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison.

The ninth man is from New York and was charged with attempted commercial sex trafficking of a minor, which carries a minimum sentence of 15 years in prison.

The operation involved the South Dakota Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce, the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation, U.S. Homeland Security Investigations, Pennington County Sheriff's Office, and the Rapid City Police Department.

“The U.S. Attorney’s Office would like to extend its appreciation to all law enforcement partners involved in the investigations for their efforts and continued cooperation,” the release said.

Law enforcement used advertisements on websites and mobile applications to communicate with online predators during the operation, Rapid City Journal reported.

The Journal also reported some of the arrests were due to situations that involved, "sending a message and digital photographs that were sexual in nature to a DCI agent" and that one of the men arrested, "admitted to engaging in those chats and admitted knowing they were minors and the communications were sexual in nature."

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