LIBERTY – Township police are asking for help from residents and businesses to help catch human trafficking and prostitution going on at the six hotels surrounding the Interstate 80 and Belmont Avenue exit.

Police Chief Toby Meloro said the action is coming in the wake of the March 14 arrest of eight men during an undercover operation involving the Liberty Police Department and the Mahoning Valley Human Trafficking Task Force, which is part of Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost’s Organized Crime Investigations Commission.

Meloro said the selling of sex, whether through human trafficking or prostitution, seems to be going on in the hotels in the area.

“We have alerted the business community to be on the lookout. We want to be proactive and not reactive in this situation,” the chief said.

Read more in Thursday’s Tribune Chronicle.