COLUMBUS, OH (WTRF) — Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost outlined the state’s 2025 progress in addressing human trafficking, emphasizing ongoing work to reduce demand and prosecute offenders.
According to the Attorney General’s Office, task forces under the Ohio Organized Crime Investigations Commission played a key role in this effort. These groups—made up of local, state, and federal law enforcement, as well as victim service organizations—focused on arresting individuals buying sex, disrupting illicit massage parlors, and pursuing long-term investigations into trafficking operations.
A major statewide operation in 2025, called Operation Next Door, involved over 100 law enforcement agencies. It resulted in 32 felony arrests, 103 arrests for soliciting sex, nine search warrants at suspected massage parlors, and services offered to 67 survivors.
Additional 2025 human trafficking case highlights included:
- February: Deondre Inkton pleaded guilty to several felony charges including trafficking in persons and money laundering. He was sentenced to 30 to 37½ years in prison. The case was handled by the Northeast Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force.
- March: Two men from Texas were arrested by the Central Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force after traveling to Columbus with four victims, one of whom was a minor. They were returned to Texas to face trafficking charges.
- May: Eight suspects linked to Tiger Spa and Sunny Spa faced 83 felony charges following a Mahoning Valley Human Trafficking Task Force investigation. Court proceedings are ongoing.
- June: James Antwan Dukes-Johnson and Michael Anthony Davis were sentenced to life in prison for aggravated murder and human trafficking. Four others also pleaded guilty in the case, which was investigated by the Central Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force.
- July: A Monroe County man was indicted on rape charges involving a minor after an investigation by the Southeastern Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force.
- August: The Northeast Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force executed search warrants at four suspected massage parlors in North Olmsted, Strongsville, and Lorain. Evidence was collected to support ongoing investigations.
- September: Five members of a criminal group were indicted by the Central Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force for involvement in trafficking, drug offenses, and violent crimes.
- October: A physician from Erie, Pennsylvania, was arrested in Ohio for allegedly attempting to meet a minor for sex. The Mahoning Valley Human Trafficking Task Force also partnered with Steubenville Police to arrest eight men accused of soliciting sex.
- November: A search warrant was carried out at the Dragon Spa in Mentor-on-the-Lake by the Northeast Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force.
- December: Columbus resident Rebecca Auborn pleaded guilty to four counts of murder. Investigators say she targeted men for sex, then fatally overdosed them to steal their belongings.
Attorney General Yost stated that the continued work of the task forces is contributing to Ohio’s efforts to reduce human trafficking throughout the state…