A small Ohio community is reeling after discovering that a supposed 16-year-old human trafficking victim living among them was actually a 24-year-old man with a child in a neighboring town.
Anthony Emmanuel Labrador-Sierra successfully deceived residents of Perrysburg, Ohio, school officials, and the couple who took him into their home by claiming to be a minor fleeing human trafficking.
His elaborate scheme lasted more than a year before unraveling.
The deception came to light when Evelyn Camacho, 22, the mother of Labrador-Sierra’s daughter, called the home where he was living with his guardians.
Kathy and Brad Mefferd, a couple in their 60s, answered the phone and learned shocking information about their supposed teenage ward.
“I was questioning what the truth was,” said Camacho.
“Did he lie to me about being an adult? Or did he lie to them about being a child? I didn’t know what was going on. And I care about him. He’s the father of my daughter,” she told the New York Post.
The Mefferds immediately contacted the school, which then notified police.
During a search of Labrador-Sierra’s room, authorities made disturbing discoveries including a burner cell phone, fake identification, a semiautomatic pistol and three loaded 9 mm magazines, according to an arrest affidavit.
Labrador-Sierra has pleaded guilty to lying on immigration forms and on an application to purchase a firearm.
He has been turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and faces decades in prison.
When asked why he perpetrated such an elaborate fraud, even Camacho could not provide a clear answer.
“Probably only he knows why he did it. And, maybe, not even him, to be honest. Anthony is impulsive,” she told the Post.
The case has sent shockwaves through Perrysburg, a town of approximately 25,000 residents.
Many are questioning how Labrador-Sierra managed to fool multiple levels of authority with apparent ease.
“People were shocked for sure,” a soccer mom whose son attended Perrysburg High School and knew Labrador, told the Post.
“We live in an area that is somewhat conservative. There were some who were, like, ‘Holy moley. How did he get past [school officials]?’”
School officials defended their actions by pointing to federal requirements.
A statement from Perrysburg Schools read in part, “We’ve reviewed our enrollment process and confirmed we followed federal law. Schools are required to immediately enroll unaccompanied minors without requiring standard enrollment paperwork.”
“While we were not required to, the school district did also obtain a birth certificate.”
The Post further noted that according to a police report from the Perrysburg Police Division, Labrador-Sierra first contacted the school on November 1, 2023, expressing interest in enrollment.
The report states that he “claimed to be homeless … an immigrant from Venezuela … and the victim of human trafficking … He wanted to become a student here.”
On January 13, 2024, he met with school officials and presented a birth certificate that appeared to show his date of birth as December 2, 2007.
The country that issued the document remains unclear. Labrador-Sierra moved in with the Mefferds on March 24, and they received permanent guardianship in November 2024.
To those around him, Labrador-Sierra appeared to be a typical high school student who had found safety in the small Ohio community.
According to the soccer mom, whose son played on the varsity team, Labrador-Sierra fit in well despite only making the junior varsity squad.
“He was very charismatic and very nice,” she said.
“In hindsight, he had different build than the average teenager. He was a little more mature than the others.”
She noted he had visible tattoos but blended in sufficiently that he was invited to a dinner hosted for soccer players at a family’s home.
However, state representative Haraz N. Ghanbari believes school officials should have conducted more thorough vetting of Labrador-Sierra’s claims.
“Customs and Border Patrol [should] have been involved with investigating the trafficking allegations,” he told the Post, noting this would have served both to verify his story and protect him if he truly were a victim.
“They would have shown up and taken his biometrics. It would have instantly alerted authorities that this guy says his birthdate is such-and-such and we are seeing it as [something else],” Ghanbari explained.
Camacho eventually located Labrador-Sierra through mutual contacts but never intended for him to face criminal charges.
Her frustration stemmed from a different place entirely.
“A thing that makes me really upset is that I was struggling so much to raise our daughter and he was living the life of a teenager with no responsibilities. He was being taken care of while I was trying to take care of our daughter,” she said.
