(Toledo News Now) - Nine people have been arrested in two human trafficking stings conducted by the Wood, Ottawa and Hancock County sheriff's offices, along with the Bowling Green Police Department and the Ohio Attorney General's Office BCI&I.
The Wood County Sheriff's Office says the enforcement operations were conducted over the past week at several locations along I-75 between Bowling Green and Findlay. Eight of the people arrested were charged with solicitation prostitution, a misdemeanor. They are:
- Divaughn Conner, 21, of Bowling Green
- Randy Gueli, 40, of Walbridge, a tier-one sex offender
- Masahiro Ito, 37, of Findlay
- Tiffany Dukett, 29, of Toledo
- Bryanna Farnesworth, 23, of Toledo
- Jayde Downton, 24, of Lima
- Dennis Sennhenn, 62, of Wixom, MI
- Jeffrey Little, 39 of Franklin, OH
A ninth person, Elizabeth Huber, 23, of Oregon, was arrested and charged with complicity to solicitation prostitution.
"It's something that we take very, very seriously. It's something that's not victim-less as some people may think," said Wood County Sheriff Mark Wasylyshyn. "We attract the prostitute to arrest them and hopefully find out if they're being human trafficked, and we are also arresting the johns, the people looking for prostitutes. So, we do both when we do our operations."
Sheriff Wasylyshyn says the arrests made where a team effort that the law enforcement agencies will continue.
"We want to make the message very, very clear that if you are a prostitute looking to get a customer in Wood County, or the area, it may be a deputy and if you're someone looking for a prostitute - you're going to be paying for sex - it may be a deputy," said Wasylyshyn.
The sheriff says it's important to target these crimes because it's about more than just sex.
"We come across people who have illegal drugs, we have had - the youngest we had is a 15-year-old girl that was forced into doing this," said Wasylyshyn.
He also says just because they already held two stings this past week, doesn't mean someone couldn't get caught this week.
"We switch the pattern around to make it very difficult for someone to know whether or not they may be dealing with a deputy," said Wasylyshyn.
According to the Wood County Sheriff's Office, more than 100 people were arrested last year during human trafficking stings across the county. This year they expect to make at least that many arrest, maybe more as they continue to broaden their circle and their sting tactics.
