During a four-day national sex trafficking sting operation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation successfully rescued 84 minors and arrested 120 people on federal charges of human trafficking.
FBI agents and task force officers staged this 11th national Operation Cross Country in casinos and hotels, street corners and online websites, working alongside the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
84 children were rescued throughout this operation, with an average age of 15 years old and the youngest victim being only 3 months old. FBI Denver recovered the 3 months old and a five-year-old girl on October 13 when a family friend of the children offered an undercover agent access to sexually exploit the girls for $600. FBI El Paso recovered a 16-year-old female victim that same day through responding to an online advertisement. Suspects in both cases were arrested on federal charges. 82 arrests were made in Wisconsin alone. 2 victims, including a 17-year-old female, were rescued in the Bay Area, while 5 men were arrested for solicitation of a minor.
This sting operation is the 11th national Operation Cross Country led by the agency as a part of its Innocence Lost National Initiative which began in 2003 and has since helped rescue and save over 6,500 children from the sexual exploitation and abuse of traffickers, with 2,000 successful indictments.
FBI Director Christopher Wray explained, “This operation isn't just about taking traffickers off the street. It’s about making sure we offer help and a way out to these young victims who find themselves caught in a vicious cycle of abuse." The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children estimates that 1 in 6 of the 18,500 reported runaway children in 2016 were likely victims of sex trafficking. CEO John Clark affirmed this reality in his released statement: “Child sex trafficking is happening in every community across America… we are working to combat this problem every day [and are] proud to work with the FBI on Operation Cross Country to help find and recover child victims.”
The work of FBI officials and law enforcement in this high-risk operation deserves our deepest appreciation for their efforts saved the lives of dozens of children from abusive environments of exploitation and will bring many more perpetrators to justice. This operation proves that though trafficking is happening in every community in the United States with any child a potential victim, much can be done to bring all children and individuals to realize full freedom.
