A Birmingham teen is one of 10 suspects facing felony charges in a Tennessee human trafficking operation.

Matthew Kenty, 18, is charged with one count of patronizing prostitution, a Class B felony, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation announced on Thursday. Kenty was on the Ramsay High School Rams' 2016 Class 6A state championship football team and is listed on the roster at Tennessee Tech.

The operation took place in Tennessee's Putman County and was carried out by the TBI, Office of the 13th District Attorney General, Cookeville Police Department, Putnam County Sheriff's Office, and Homeland Security Investigations, according to a press release. The initiative targeted individuals attempting to purchase illicit sex from minors.

"With each similar operation we conduct, we want to send the same message; that we will not tolerate the sexual exploitation of any person in our community," TBI Acting Director Jason Locke said in a prepared statement. "This is a demand-driven crime, involving men from all kinds of backgrounds. As a state, Tennessee has led the fight to see to it that no child or adult falls victim to these sexual predators."

The three-day operation took place in Cookeville in February and focused on individuals seeking to engage in commercial sex acts with females under the age of 18, and those engaged in trafficking others for commercial sex acts. For all three days of the operation, advertisements were placed in the "Women Seeking Men" section of backpage.com, and two female TBI Agents posted as individuals offering sex on that site. During the course of the resulting text or phone conversations, the agents identified themselves as being 14 to 17 years old. A total of ten men, from college students, to a mail carrier, to a landscaping company owner, traveled to the location to meet for the purpose of illicit sex from a female they believed to be a minor.

"As significant as these arrests are, we are only scratching the surface," said Cookeville Police Chief Randy Evans. "It is incumbent upon us to remain vigilant, and pursue and prosecute human trafficking across the state, as we all continue to battle this heinous crime."

In the course of the three-day operation, men using 697 unique phone numbers responded to the ads that were posted online, seeking to purchase illicit sex. The total number of contacts, such as text messages and calls, was 5,211, according to the release. Some of the conversations between these men and undercover agents continued after they learned they were chatting with someone they believed to be a minor. During the operation, agents and intelligence analysts also gathered information in an effort to identify and recover potential victims of human trafficking.

On May 8th, the Putnam County Grand Jury returned indictments, charging ten men in connection with this operation. Of those, eight had been taken into custody by Thursday.

You can read the full list of those arrested here.