Prosecuting Attorney Ron Welch speaks out about Human Trafficking

MUSKINGUM COUNTY, Ohio- Muskingum County Prosecuting Attorney Ron Welch spoke at Rotary today addressing the issues of human trafficking.

Human trafficking doesn’t take place in just big cities, it’s happening everywhere. Welch said it exists in Muskingum County and affects every part of the community.

“Our offices prosecuted several cases involving human trafficking, people ranging in the ages of three to about 24 years old and we’ve also had numerous complaints of other victims but they’re very challenging cases to prosecute because human trafficking is often intertwined with drug trafficking. It makes it difficult to keep track of the victims,” Welch said.

Welch spoke about incidents and scenarios that involve human trafficking. Welch said with Zanesville being close to Columbus, it allows human traffickers to look for victims in rural areas and put them into the trafficking network and take advantage of them. Their idea is to think that victims will want to get away to the bigger cities and have a different experience then they already do.

So how do we prevent this?

“Education. I think it’s important to speak at groups like this so as more people learn about what’s going on with human trafficking, they can educate others and then eventually everyone will be educated to recognize what the signs are that somebody might be stuck in a situation where they’re a victim of human trafficking,” Welch said.

Welch expressed that this issue can happen to anyone. He shared and encouraged everyone to check out an online training course about human trafficking. You can find it here.