During a two-week nationwide operation in August known as “Operation Cross Country,” FBI agents and local officials recovered 141 adult victims of human trafficking, 84 minor victims of child sex trafficking and sexual exploitation, and have identified 37 currently missing minors.
The officials reported that the youngest victim found during this operation was 11 years old, whereas the average age of victims in operations of a similar nature is about 15.
According to FBI Director Christopher Wray, one of the most terrible crimes the agency deals with is human trafficking. Unfortunately, these crimes against both adults and children, “are far more common than most people realize.”
During the course of Operation Cross Country, which involved 391 operations over the course of two weeks, federal agents detained 85 people for crimes involving child sexual exploitation and human trafficking. FBI special agents, intelligence analysts, victim specialists, and child and adolescent forensic interviewers are part of the operation’s teams, which collaborate with 200 local, state, and federal partners.
Victim specialists help survivors build positive relationships with law enforcement, acting as a bridge for those who have lost faith in the system.
Additionally, experts assist survivors in obtaining services according on their particular need, such as crisis intervention and minimal needs for survival.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a partner in the operation, claimed that the success of the rescue of the trafficking children confirms what it witnesses every day.
According to Michelle DeLaune, the center’s president and CEO, “Children are being bought and sold for sex in communities across the country by traffickers, gangs, and even family members… We’re proud to support the FBI’s efforts to prioritise the safety of children. This national operation highlights the need for all child-serving professionals to continue to focus on the wellbeing of children and youth to prevent them from being targeted in the first place.”
According to the center’s website, it helped with 27,733 cases of missing children, providing support to families, law police, and child welfare.
The National Crime Information Center of the FBI reports that there were 337,195 registrations for missing children in 2021. 365,348 entries for missing children were made in 2020.
tAccording to Fox News, Section Chief Jose Perez, who is in charge of the FBI’s violent crime investigations, said “the initiative really just takes a concentrated period of time when we’re just focused on the problem of child sex trafficking… What we do is we sit down with our local partners and our task forces and identify certain areas where we know sex trafficking is prevalent, and we’ll dedicate resources and efforts to identify and remove victims from those areas.”