Eight people have been charged in connection with a human trafficking crackdown by police in the city of Warren.

Police say the charges came as a result of an investigation conducted in conjunction with agents of the Mahoning Valley Human Trafficking Task Force who posted an ad on a social media website offering sex for money.

Authorities arrested 20-year-old Lamont Edward Davis of Warren and 44-year-old Joseph Edward Tennant of Youngstown on charges of promoting prostitution and possession of criminal tools. Tennant is also charged with soliciting.

Police say when Davis replied to the ad by texting an offer to serve as a manager for the person he thought was offering sex for money. 

According to the undercover agent, Davis texted, "I was tryna get you on my team bab I have dates set up already for big money" 

The undercover agent says Joseph Tennant sent a text saying he wanted to arrange to have sex for himself and a friend. However, after being arrested at a pre-arranged location, Tennant later told police he really didn't mean it.  Even so, police charged Tennant with promoting prostitution. 

In many prostitution investigations, suspects are charged with possessing criminal tools because they used a phone or computer to arrange meetings with prostitutes.

Six other men were arraigned Thursday morning on charges of soliciting and possession of criminal tools.

Police say those six responded to the undercover officer's online ad and solicited sex acts for hire.  When the men when to a pre-arranged location to meet the person they had been texting, officers arrested them.

Those men are identified as:

Dain Bancroft, 55, Mineral Ridge, Oh.

Jay Barbe, 55, West Farmington, Oh.

Bryan Calai, 35, Warren, Oh.

Patrick Cassidy, 53, Hubbard, Oh.

Donald Lingenfelter, 48, Sharon, Pa.

Philip Salus, 68, Salineville, Oh.

Warren Law Director Gregory Hicks told 21 News that this is their first sting operation since the government shut down Backpage.com earlier this month amid allegations that it profited from sex service ads.

A similar sing in the city last November resulted in ten arrests.

"This investigation shows that the demand for sex trafficking is still being fueled by people looking to purchase sex through online sites," said Attorney General DeWine.