Michael Bender, 41, of Warren, Trumbull County, Ohio, United States previously lived in Clarksville, Tennessee, USA and Fort Campbell, Kentucky. He has lived in different parts of Texas, USA including Killeen and El Campo.
Aside from Warren, Bender has lived in other parts of Ohio including Niles and Johnstown. He was recently arrested in Austintown, Mahoning County, Ohio.
Bender was one of the suspects arrested in a recent human trafficking crackdown on patrons of sex workers in Ohio. His mugshot has yet to be released.
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.
Operation Buyer’s Remorse was led by the Ohio Organized Crime Investigations Commission (OOCIC) 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.
Including Bender, 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.
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.
On September 29, 2023, Austintown Police Department officers arrested Bender and five other men in Austintown. The others were Christopher Suarez, 56, of Erie, Pennsylvania, USA, Brian Spade, 42, of Youngstown, Ohio, Cornelius Echols, 35, of Effingham, South Carolina, USA, Deshawn Evans, 26, of Austintown and Jonathan Waguespack, 21, of Poland, Ohio.
“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.”
CONAN Daily 