The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has successfully rescued 168 children after a week-long sting operation that cracked down on sex trafficking.
The authorities arrested nearly 281 pimps and saved 168 child prostitutes in the nationwide sex trafficking crackdown dubbed "Operation Cross Country." The children who had been forced into prostitution were recovered and arrests were made in 106 cities. Nearly two dozen children were rescued and 38 pimps snagged in California alone.
In its eighth annual sting operation, the FBI targeted areas like truck stops, casinos, websites that advertise escort services and even some streets.
Officials reveal that the child sex traffickers "use fear and force and treat children as commodities of sex."
"Child sex traffickers create a living nightmare for their adolescent victims," said Leslie R. Caldwell, assistant attorney general for the criminal division of the U.S. Department of Justice.
As per the FBI, close to 10 percent of the children had been missing from child protective services. What is astounding is that a majority of the rescued children had never been reported as missing even though they were under the U.S. child welfare system.
"Many of the children recovered during this operation were never reported missing," said John Ryan, CEO of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. "When they go missing from child welfare systems, they are literally flying under the radar. No one is reporting them missing, hence no one is looking for them."
According to Ryan, nearly one missing child in every seven is forced to enter into the sex trade, which is an alarming statistic. Moreover, nearly 67 percent of these children who become victims of trafficking are from the child welfare system.
James Comey, FBI Director, who made the announcement of the successful sting operation on Monday, June 23, revealed that the both those arrested and the rescued children were U.S. citizens, which means that this is not a smuggling issue.
"These are not faraway kids in faraway lands," said Comey during a press conference. "These are our kids on our street corners, our truck stops, our motels, our casinos. These are America's children."
According to the FBI, over 3,600 children have been rescued from the street over the years and the operations have resulted in over 1,450 felony convictions and confiscation of close to $3.1 million in property and cash.
