To the residents of Perrysburg, Ohio, his school pals and the guardians who welcomed him in, Anthony Emmanuel Labrador-Sierra was a 16-year-old human trafficking victim.
There was one problem.
He was really 24 years old and had a baby with his ex-fiancée a town over in Toledo.
His scheme worked for over a year, with authorities falling for a birth certificate he produced shaving six years off his age.
Then one night, Evelyn Camacho, 22, mother of Labrador-Sierra’s daughter, called the house where he was living.
His new guardians, a couple in their 60s named Kathy and Brad Mefferd, answered.
“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 Post.
The Mefferds called the school, which in turn called the police. They also searched his room and made unsettling discoveries including a burner cellphone, fake ID, a semiautomatic pistol and three loaded 9mm magazines, according to an arrest affidavit.
Labrador-Sierra has since pleaded guilty to lying on immigration forms and on an application to purchase a firearm.
He has been handed over to ICE and faces decades in prison.
Why did he do it? “That’s a great question,” Camacho, a US citizen, told The Post.
“Probably only he knows why he did it. And, maybe, not even him, to be honest. Anthony is impulsive.”
The case has upended the 25,000-person town, with many residents questioning how easily Labrador-Sierra was able to dupe authorities.
“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]?’”
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.”
According to a report filed by the Perrysburg Police Division, the saga of Anthony Labrador began on November 1, 2023, when he called Perrysburg Schools to see about enrolling as a student.
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 produced a birth certificate that appeared to show him born on December 2, 2007. It is unclear what country issued that birth certificate.
He moved in with the Mefferds, parents of four children, on March 24 and they were granted permanent guardianship in November 2024.
To all appearances, Labrador-Sierra was a high school kid who found safe harbor in the small town.
According to the soccer mom, whose son played on the varsity team (shockingly, Labrador only made JV), Labrador-Sierra blended in and was well liked. “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.”
He also had blatant tattoos, but blended in well enough that when one of the families held a dinner in their home for the school’s soccer players, Labrador was invited and nothing seemed amiss.
But Haraz N. Ghanbari, state representative from Ohio, believes the school should have done more to vet Labrador-Sierra’s story.
“Customs and Border Patrol [should] have been involved with investigating the trafficking allegations,” he told The Post, pointing out that it would have been for the supposed kid’s own good as well as to verify his legitimacy.
“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].”
Camacho tracked Labrador-Sierra down through mutual contacts, but she never meant for him to end up in custody.
“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.”
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