Children rescued, hundreds of people charged in child-prostitution crackdown

CHICAGO Tribune

WASHINGTON — Federal officials announced Monday that 52 children had been saved and nearly 700 people had been arrested and charged over the past three days in a nationwide crackdown on child prostitution.

Officials of the FBI, along with representatives of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and police agencies throughout the country, said the arrests were the results of investigations in 36 cities.

The sweep, dubbed Operation Cross Country, is part of the Innocence Lost National Initiative, started in 2003 to address child-sex trafficking in the U.S.

The arrests are “extraordinary, almost historic,” said Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, in an interview. “It’s an incredible model. I think it’s working. We’re having an enormous impact on this business.”

To date, the initiative has rescued nearly 900 children, led to the conviction of 510 pimps, madams and their associates, and seized $3.1 million in assets, according to the FBI.

FBI investigators worked in tandem with the center to identify victimized children and their exploiters.

Most of the children recovered through the project have been girls, who usually become victims of traffickers around the age of 12, Allen said. He estimated that 100,000 children are still involved in sex trafficking in the U.S., adding that the problem is growing partly because of the recession.