New York ? A former federal security agent, a former Southampton village treasurer and 19 other men were arrested following a sting operation targeting men who attempted to meet underage teens for sex, Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice announced Thursday.

The summerlong sting targeted men ranging in age from 22 to 61 who had online conversations and arranged to meet with investigators posing as children, boys and girls, ages 13, 14, and 15, authorities said.

Rice’s office rented a house in Merrick to be used as a so-called sting house, where the men could arrange to meet underage girls for sex. Two officers also posed as young girls.

Six of the 21 men showed up for meetings with people they thought were underage girls they chatted with online, sometime for weeks, police said. Each of the men engaged in sexually explicit online conversations.