21 arrested in Cook County prostitution sting

Twenty-one men were arrested Thursday in a Cook County prostitution sting set up by the sheriff’s office.

An sheriff’s office posing as a person selling sex online set up meetings with the men at a hotel, the sheriff’s office said. Once the men agreed to pay for sex, an officer waiting outside the room entered and took them into custody.

All of the men were issued $1,000 citations for violating of the county’s public morals nuisance ordinance, the sheriff’s office said. Seventeen vehicles used by the men to get to the hotel were towed and the men will be required to pay $500 to reclaim the vehicles.

“Sex trafficking leaves a trail of trauma in its wake,” Sheriff Thomas Dart said in a statement. “Too many victims, most of whom are women, experience violence and abuse, and we are committed to pursuing those who perpetuate this trauma by seeking to purchase sex.”