Cornelius Echols, 35, of Effingham, Florence County, South Carolina, United States was one of the suspects arrested in a recent human trafficking crackdown on patrons of sex workers in Ohio, USA. His mugshot has yet to be released.
From September 25-30, 2023, 100 law enforcement agencies participated in Operation Buyer’s Remorse, a human trafficking crackdown in Ohio. As part of the investigations, search warrants were conducted at 11 massage parlors suspected of human trafficking activities.
Operation Buyer’s Remorse was led by the Ohio Organized Crime Investigations Commission (OOCIC) of the office of Ohio’s attorney general Dave Yost, 66. Eight human trafficking and major crimes task forces of the OOCIC conducted a series of coordinated stings.
“You don’t know if you’re contributing to human trafficking when you buy sex in Ohio,” Yost stated. “Don’t buy sex in Ohio.”
Including Echols a total of 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.
On September 29, 2023, Austintown Police Department officers arrested Echols and five other men in Austintown, Mahoning County, Ohio. The others were Christopher Suarez, 51, of Erie, Pennsylvania, USA, Brian Spayde, 42, of Youngstown, Ohio, Michael Bender, 41, of Warren, Ohio, Deshawn Evans, 26, of Austintown and Jonathan Waguespack, 21, of Poland, Ohio.
Among the 160 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 either for illegally possessing narcotics and firearms or because there were outstanding warrants against them.
A total of 104 survivors of human trafficking were interviewed. They were provided services from health care and social service organizations.
CONAN Daily 