Sheriff: Victims rescued as ICE takes over labor trafficking investigation in western Lorain County

A Lorain County Sheriff's Office investigation into the alleged trafficking of agricultural workers in the western part of the county resulted in an unknown number of rescues Thursday. Sheriff Jack Hall said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, has taken over the investigation. The joint operation also involved the Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S. Border Patrol and other federal agencies. "This was a big joint operation," Chief Deputy Tanya Czack said. Hall said his office was investigating two people in particular for allegedly trafficking migrant workers and underpaying them. Authorities found multiple victims during that investigation, Czack said, and ICE stepped in to take over. Hall and Czack did not have a final tally of the number of people arrested or alleged victims rescued. They said that would have to come from federal authorities. A message seeking comment on the operation was left for ICE officials. For more than a year, Hall said, his investigators were "trying to work up" a case on alleged perpetrators of labor trafficking, primarily in the construction trades. "Today they were affiliated with agriculture," he said, with traffickers bringing victims across U.S. borders to work for substandard wages. From Thursday's traffic stops and arrests, which Czack said happened mostly in Pittsfield Township, Hall said evidence was found that workers were being brought into the country and "not even being paid minimum wage or the prevailing wage" for their work. Labor traffickers, he said, were taking or keeping most of their earnings. White vans that witnesses reported seeing in the area were used for privacy when transporting alleged victims so they could be provided with help from social services agencies, Czack said. "About 10 percent" of those stopped and questioned by authorities on Thursday had valid work visas and were released, Hall said. Contact Dave O'Brien at 440-329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com.