Howard County Police arrested three Laurel men and 10 others in the department's fourth effort targeting prostitution solicitors along Route 1 since August.

During the latest reverse operation on Saturday afternoon, female officers dressed in plain clothes stood along a stretch of Route 1 in Jessup that has been the target of resident complaints. Individuals who approached the officers and made an offer to exchange money for sex were arrested.

Among the 13 who were arrested are Kenneth Osaretin Aghedo, 41, of Laurel; Mohamed Kanu, 41, of Laurel; Joseph Tawiah Sackey, 40, of Laurel and Fransisco Aguilar Rojas, 31, of Riverdale.

The most recent sting took place in the same part of Jessup as a Sept. 4 operation that yielded 16 arrests. Two reverse operations along Route 1 in North Laurel on Aug. 20 and Oct. 2 resulted in 41 total arrests.

Elizabeth Schroen, a spokeswoman with the Howard County Police Department, said the reverse operations appear to be deterring some of the prostitution along Route 1.

"They've been successful, and we'll continue to use them as one of our strategies," she said.

Efforts to contact Aghedo, Kanu, Sackey and Rojas were unsuccessful.

E-mail Caitlin Moran at cmoran@gazette.net.