The Ames Police Department has arrested four individuals for prostitution in an undercover operation as part of a project to see the rate of prostitution and human trafficking in Ames.

While no human trafficking cases were discovered, four individuals were arrested on the grounds of prostitution and soliciting sex for money from undercover officers, said Investigations Commander Geoff Huff.

“In all four cases, it was men soliciting sex from our undercover officers,” said Huff. “There’s a lot of information out there right now about human trafficking. That was our motivation for doing this, to see what activity’s actually going on in our area.”

The following individuals were arrested April 22 and taken to the Story County Jail: Mohammed Ali Rashed Musabbeh Aldhaheri, of Ames, 20, David Oliver Merritt, of Ames, 56, Jason Prouty, of Ogden, 32 and Hua Huang, of Ames, 24.

Stephen Holmes, Story County attorney, said all individuals arrested have posted bond and will have court hearings soon. 

“It was almost a fact-finding mission for us — what do we have going on, how much of it is going on? But I think we’ve got kind of an idea,” Huff about the investigation.

Huff said the department worked with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in case they discovered human trafficking cases. Huff said the FBI would have helped with follow-up investigations and making sure victims had proper recovery resources.

Prostitution is an aggravated misdemeanor, which according to Iowa Code, if there is no specific penalty, can carry a maximum time of two years in prison.

The team planned the investigation for about a month, Huff said, and carried out meetings April 22.

“We posted our own advertisement in places that people would go to look for it. We just kind of waited to see if they would contact us. They set up to meet and we facilitated that meeting,” Huff said. “There were exchanges of money for sex and once [the exchange of money] happened, then we would make an arrest.”

Huff he could not share specific details because he did not want to compromise the investigation in case the department will conduct similar investigations in the future.

“We were glad it was only four, but obviously that’s four too many and there’s probably a lot going on that we don’t know about. I think it’s an opportunity for us to at least get a look at what we have going on and what we need to work on,” Huff said.