Overview

• The coordinated crackdown targeted people seeking to buy sex, with cases that included alleged attempts involving minors.
• Investigators recovered a 14-year-old at risk, opened probes tied to a 17-year-old, and found a missing 17-year-old at a registered sex offender’s residence.
• Search warrants at multiple massage businesses in Lakewood, Cleveland, Akron, Tallmadge and Toledo led to seizures totaling more than $62,000 in cash and several promoting-prostitution charges.
• Arrestees included individuals who identified themselves as a Cleveland Greek Orthodox priest, a schoolteacher, a substitute teacher, a former police officer, and a federal defense attorney.
• Charges ranged from soliciting and compelling prostitution to trafficking in persons and child sexual imagery offenses, with some cases moving to federal court and victims connected with advocates.