24-year-old posing as high school student claims he was trafficked

TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) - Perrysburg police say they acted swiftly when they learned a 24-year-old man was enrolled in Perrysburg High School posing as a student.

13 Action News is on your side, getting answers about how the man came to Toledo and allegedly deceived a Perrysburg family into caring for him.

Court documents outline more details about the man’s alleged life.

We don’t know whether any of the information in the court documents filed in April of 2024 is real because police said Anthony Labrador Sierra lied about his age.

He remains locked up on a forgery charge in Wood County. The 24-year-old is accused of posing as a child and providing a fake document to Perrysburg High School.

“He presented a Venezuela birth certificate that reported his age again at the time would have been 16. He had reached out to the school at the end of 2023, claiming that he was trafficked into the country from Venezuela and he wanted to enroll in school and I started that process,” said Perrysburg Detective Ryan Merrow.

Police arrested Labrador Sierra on Monday. According to a court document, Perrysburg school leaders suggested that Labrador Sierra stayed with a foster family in the area.

The documents show a Wood County family took him in in March of 2024.

A lawyer claimed he was abandoned, neglected, and abused by his parents and left to seek a safer life in the United States when he was 15 years old.

The documents allege he was homeless and couch-surfed.

School leaders said he was issued federal temporary protective status by the US Immigration Department.

According to Perryburg Police, that status expired in 2023.

Megan Mattimoe is the executive director of Advocating Opportunity. The organization provides services to human trafficking victims and Labrador Sierra is a client.

“We don’t have permission from him to discuss the details of his case. But he has asked us to clarify that we are working with him in relation to his trafficking experience and that we haven’t yet filed a visa application for him. So he’s in the process of doing that,” Mattimoe said.

Mattimoe said they can’t move forward until the criminal case is done. As for the criminal case, Perrysburg police say it’s possible more charges could be filed.

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