The FBI released the below
information:
A monthlong FBI-led operation to
identify and arrest sex traffickers and recover child victims has resulted in
dozens of arrests across the country and the identification and recovery of
more than 100 juveniles.
The initiative during the month of
July, dubbed Operation Independence Day, relied on more than 400 law
enforcement agencies working on FBI Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking
Task Forces in each of the Bureau’s 56 field offices. The sweep included
undercover operations and has led to the opening of five dozen federal criminal
investigations. Agents and analysts at FBI Headquarters and in the field worked
closely with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC)
to identify young runaways, missing kids, and juveniles who may have been
subjected to human trafficking.
In all, 103 juveniles were
identified or recovered and 67 suspected traffickers were arrested. The sweep
resulted in 60 new federal investigations.
“The FBI is fiercely focused on
recovering child victims and arresting the sex traffickers who exploit them,”
FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement. “Through operations like
this, the FBI helps child victims escape the abusive life of sex trafficking.”
Atlanta, Houston, and Denver were among the cities that took part in Operation
Independence Day, a monthlong nationwide initiative in July 2019 to find human
traffickers and rescue their underage victims.
In past years, the FBI initiated
weeklong coordinated nationwide sweeps under the name Operation Cross Country
to arrest traffickers and recover underage victims. This year, FBI field
offices had a longer time window to plan and execute operations as part of the
national initiative, with the goal being to develop richer leads and
intelligence, and more robust cases.
“We are here to rescue children, and
we are here to build good cases against traffickers,” said Jeanette Milazzo, a
special agent who led one of the Houston Field Office’s task force operations
in early July. In that operation, undercover officers from the Houston Police
Department scanned social media and escort sites looking for what appeared to
be juveniles advertising for commercial sex. They set up fake dates, met at
pre-arranged locations, and then brought individuals (and their pimps in some
cases) in for interviews to determine if they were underage or trafficked or if
they could help identify other victims or traffickers. In each case, FBI victim
specialists ensure the individuals understand their situation and are made
aware of the resources available to help them.
“If we have developed enough rapport
with the victim, we build a case against their trafficker and hopefully charge
them in federal court,” Milazzo said.
The FBI and NCMEC, along with the
Department of Justice Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, launched the
Innocence Lost National Initiative in 2003 to combat sex trafficking of
children in the U.S. Today, the initiative includes 86 Child Exploitation and
Human Trafficking Task Forces that work year-round on efforts like those
conducted during Operation Independence Day. To date, the collaboration has led
to the recovery or identification of more than 6,600 child victims and more
than 2,700 criminal convictions of traffickers.
The FBI-led Operation Cross Country
sweeps, which were held annually between 2008 and 2017, recovered more than 900
child victims and arrested nearly 1,400 traffickers.
A major element in all the FBI’s
trafficking cases is the placement of victim specialists on operational teams.
Their mission is to provide victims with resources to help them in their
situations. But they also frequently serve as intermediaries between
victim-witnesses and investigators.
During a recent operation in Denver,
a victim specialist was there while an agent and police detective interviewed a
17-year-old boy who had advertised himself online. The victim specialist talked
to the boy, who was not arrested, about the inherent dangers of his actions and
plugged him into the local network of resources designed to help him.
“What we see is underage boys who
are engaging in unsafe methods online where they agree to meet for a date in
exchange for money or anything of value,” said Anne Darr, a victim specialist
on the Denver Field Office’s Rocky Mountain Innocence Lost Task Force. “It’s
important that we intervene and that we provide education, awareness, and
resources to them. So that way they don't go back online and meet somebody who
could be an online predator.”
The task forces in the recent
operation included federal, state, local, and tribal partners, with efforts in
every state and some U.S. territories. A single operation in early July led by
the FBI’s office in Guam (part of the Honolulu Field Office) included nearly 20
investigators from the FBI, the Guam Police Department, the U.S. Postal
Inspection Service, the Coast Guard Investigative Service, and Homeland
Security Investigations. The effort resulted in a federal case against a
33-year-old man who allegedly trafficked a minor girl to a 48-year-old man in
exchange for cash and drugs.
In his remarks, Director Wray said
the FBI’s focus on the issue is not confined to a single week or month each
year. The effort to find and stop traffickers and recover kids is ongoing and
continuous.
“Our agents, intelligence analysts,
professional staff, and victim specialists work tirelessly before, during, and
after these operations to make sure that victims get the help they need to
reclaim their lives,” Wray said.
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