A three-day FBI sex-trafficking investigation has resulted with 150 arrests in 76 cities across the United States. Dubbed Operation Cross Country, the sting was the seventh and largest such enforcement action to date, the FBI said in a news release on Monday. The FBI says it recovered 105 sexually exploited children. All of the children were from the U.S. and there was no Canadian connection in this operation, a spokesperson said.
"Pimps" or the suspects were detained in 76 U.S. cities and are likely to face state and federal charges related to sex crimes and human trafficking, FBI and U.S. Justice Department officials said at a news conference.
Officials said, FBI agents and local police recovered 105 children during the operation at truck stops, motels, casinos and other places where they were forced to work as prostitutes.
The FBI said, of the 150 suspects, 18 were arrested by agents based in Detroit, 17 by agents from San Francisco and 13 by Oklahoma City agents.
"Child prostitution remains a persistent threat to children across America," said Ron Hosko, assistant director of the FBI's Criminal Investigative Division. "This operation serves as a reminder that these abhorrent crimes can happen anywhere and that the FBI remains committed to stopping this cycle of victimization and holding the criminals who profit from this exploitation accountable." Created in 2003, the Innocence Lost National Initiative, has given rise to in the identification and recovery of 2,700 children who have been sexually exploited, the FBI said. The arrests have concluded in eight federal life sentences and terms of imprisonment frequently ranging from 15-50 years.
The culture of abuse, both physical and emotional, and the drug use prevalent in child prostitution are other major problems.
"We have victims whose new normal is abuse and is drug-infected," Hosko said, explaining there is an environment of instability in which "the expectation of somebody who cares about them may last for 30 minutes or an hour before the abuse starts again."
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