It was the sixth nationwide sweep -- called Operation Cross Country --
organized as part of the FBI’s Innocence Lost National Initiative to
address the growing problem of child sex trafficking in the United
States.
Hundreds of FBI agents and thousands of state and local law-enforcement
officers targeted the Internet as well as such places as truck stops,
casinos and "tracks" where prostitutes are known to walk the street in
the crackdown.
Information gleaned from those arrested often uncovers organized prostitution rings, the FBI said.
"It
is clear that child prostitution and sex trafficking do not just occur
somewhere else on the other side of the world," Ernie Allen, president
of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, a partner
in the effort, said in a news release. "These insidious crimes are
occurring in American cities and the victims are American kids."
The
average age of a child targeted for prostitution in the United States
is between 11 and 14 years old, FBI assistant director Kevin L. Perkins
told the Senate Judiciary Committee in March.
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