More than a dozen men were arrested on soliciting prostitution charges, including one man listed as a defensive tackle for Birmingham Iron, the city’s new AAF team.

Lawrence Okoye, 27, and 12 others were snared in an operation by the Shelby County Drug Enforcement Task Force, the team’s third phase of the ongoing probe since September. He is a British track and field star and holds the British record in the discus event. He previously played rugby, as well, and was named one of 10 players to watch by AL.com as the Iron begins its first season.

Okoye - listed on the Iron roster as a 6-foot-6, 311-pound defensive lineman from Croydon, England - has no college football experience. He is a former rugby player and track star, who finished 12th in the discus in the 2012 Summer Olympics. Okoye was signed by the San Francisco 49ers in 2013, but suffered a preseason injury, and he has since spent time on the practice squad with the Cardinals, Jets and Cowboys and has been on the roster and later cut by the Bears and Dolphins.

He was arrested Wednesday, and released from the Shelby County Jail Thursday after posting $1,000 bond.

“We have just been made aware of the incident. We are still in the process of gathering facts," Julie Nelson, director of team communications for the Birmingham Iron, wrote in an email.

Operation Close Out, Round 3 took place Wednesday in northern Shelby County. Commander Capt. Clay Hammac described the operation as an undercover reverse prostitution sting.

"The motivation behind these efforts is to demonstrate a zero-tolerance for criminal solicitation and to aggressively attack the demand for these types of enterprises, which is often rooted in human trafficking and drug trafficking,'' Hammac has previously said about Operation Close Out.

Similar operations were carried out in Shelby County in September and October, which led to the arrests of 20 men.

Those arrested on soliciting prostitution charges are:

- Mychal Lucino Boyd, 54, of Oxford

- Brandon Bryant, 46, of Pinson

- Brandon Fitzgerald Green, 36, of Texas

- Domingo Hernandez, 29, of Birmingham

- Michael Jackson, 32, of Leeds

- Miguel Ledezma, 44, of Alabaster

- Kenneth McMillian, 26, of Birmingham

- Lawrence Okoye, 27, of Homewood

- James Perrin, 50, of Birmingham

- David Randolph Scott, 65, of Adamsville

- Charles Dewayne Smith, 39, of Birmingham

- James Witt, 51, of Hoover

Linard Stanley Walker, 32, of Bessemer

Also arrested during the operation was 39-year-old Jude Christopher Burke of Louisiana. He was not charged with soliciting prostitution, but was charged with unlawful distribution of a controlled substance – LSD – as well as unlawful possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia.