Mark Hagenbaugh, 60, Akron, Summit County, Ohio, United States registered to vote in Portage County, Ohio on June 27, 2020. He is not affiliated to any political party.
Aside from Akron, Hagenbaugh has lived in other parts of Ohio including Uniontown, Mogadore, New Franklin and Garrettsville. He was one of the suspects arrested in a recent human trafficking crackdown on patrons of sex workers in Ohio.
Operation Buyer’s Remorse
The U.S. Border Patrol was one of the 100 law enforcement agencies involved in Operation Buyer’s Remorse, a human trafficking crackdown conducted in Ohio from September 25-30, 2023. As part of the investigations, search warrants were conducted at 11 massage parlors suspected of human trafficking activities.
Including Hagenbaugh, 160 suspects were arrested. Most of them are from Ohio while some are from other parts of the U.S. including Alabama, California, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington, D.C. and West Virginia and others are from other countries including Afghanistan, Bhutan, India and Nepal.
Among the arrestees, 149 people were charged with engaging in prostitution, six people were arrested for promoting prostitution and two people were arrested for seeking to have sex with minors. Others were arrested for illegally possessing narcotics and/or firearms, or because there were outstanding warrants against them.
Dave Yost
Dave Yost, 66, is the 51st and incumbent attorney general of Ohio. He assumed office on January 14, 2019.
The Ohio Organized Crime Investigations Commission (OOCIC) of the attorney general’s office led Operation Buyer’s Remorse. Eight human trafficking and major crimes task forces of the OOCIC conducted a series of coordinated stings.
For Yost, Operation Buyer’s Remorse is a victory in U.S. law enforcement’s war against human trafficking. During the operation, a total of 104 survivors of human trafficking were interviewed and directed to health and social services.
The operation was all about targeting the demand, according to Yost. He said, “You don’t know if you’re contributing to human trafficking when you buy sex in Ohio. Don’t buy sex in Ohio.”
CONAN Daily 