01/22/2021
33 missing kids recovered in joint Los Angeles-based operation combatting human trafficking
Published 41 mins agoFOX 11
LOS ANGELES - Nearly three-dozen missing children have been recovered in Southern California during a recent Los Angeles-based operation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced Friday.
Throughout the month of January, which is Human Trafficking Awareness Month, the FBI worked with the Los Angeles Police Department, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and more than two-dozen law enforcement and non-governmental partners to identify, locate and recover 33 missing children, said Kristi K. Johnson, assistant director in charge of the FBI's Los Angeles field office.
Specific details about the operation, nicknamed "Los Angels," were not immediately available.
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Of the children recovered, eight were being s*xually exploited at the time of recovery. Two were recovered multiple times during the operation while on the "track," a term commonly used to describe a known location for commercial s*x trafficking, Johnson said.
Several of the victims had been s*xually exploited in the past and were considered vulnerable missing children prior to their recovery. Additionally, the operation resulted in the arrest on state charges of one suspected human trafficker and the opening of multiple investigations. Some of the minor victims were arrested for probation violations, robbery or other misdemeanors, and one child was a victim of a non-custodial parental kidnapping, according to the FBI.
The FBI case load for both s*x and labor trafficking-related crimes has increased significantly in the past several years. As of November, there were more than 1,800 pending trafficking investigations including those involving minors exploited through commercial s*x trafficking, according to the agency.
CNS contributed to this report.
