The Department of Homeland Security identified six people arrested in a large U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation Sept. 25 in Manitowoc County, though it remains unclear how the agency connected the individuals to what it called a "transnational human trafficking and drug trafficking ring."

DHS has portrayed the operation as a dismantling of a transnational criminal network, while advocates have said many of those arrested were dairy workers on their way to work. Most of the individuals identified by DHS so far are not facing charges related to sex or drug offenses.

Though DHS said the operation stemmed from information gathered by the FBI while interviewing victims of the trafficking ring in a Sept. 30 news release , neither agency has shared what that information was

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