CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Three children have been rescued from sex trafficking operations in Charlotte, the FBI announced following a month-long investigation in July.
The nationwide investigation resulted in the arrest of 67 traffickers and the rescue of 103 children. An additional 39 adult victims were also assisted.
The initiative during the month of July, dubbed Operation Independence Day, relied on more than 400 law enforcement agencies working on FBI Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Forces in each of the Bureau’s 56 field offices. The sweep included undercover operations and has led to the opening of five dozen federal criminal investigations. Agents and analysts at FBI Headquarters and in the field worked closely with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) to identify young runaways, missing kids, and juveniles who may have been subjected to human trafficking.
“The FBI is fiercely focused on recovering child victims and arresting the sex traffickers who exploit them,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement. “Through operations like this, the FBI helps child victims escape the abusive life of sex trafficking.”
Agents worked with police in scanning various social media outlets and escort sites looking for children and teenagers who were posting themselves for commercial sex. The undercover agents would arrange to meet meet the minors.
“Its important that we intervene and that we provide real good educational awareness and resources to them so that they don’t go back online and meet somebody who could be an online predator," FBI Special Agent Anne Darr said in a released statement.
North Carolina is ranked tenth nationwide when it comes to human trafficking cases. South Carolina is 26th.
The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation last year established a new unit to deal only with trafficking cases that agents say are the hardest to work.
“They are probably the hardest to work because your evidence is another human being that has been manipulated and brainwashed, if you will, and we’ve got to get them mentally 'ok' and willing to testify," Carl Wall, the SBI agent in charge of the unit, told NBC Charlotte.
FBI recovers more than 100 juveniles in sex trafficking task force
In past years, the FBI initiated weeklong coordinated nationwide sweeps under the name Operation Cross Country to arrest traffickers and recover underage victims. This year, FBI field offices had a longer time window to plan and execute operations as part of the national initiative, with the goal being to develop richer leads and intelligence, and more robust cases.
The FBI and NCMEC, along with the Department of Justice Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, launched the Innocence Lost National Initiative in 2003 to combat sex trafficking of children in the U.S. The initiative includes 86 Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Forces that work year-round on efforts like those conducted during Operation Independence Day. To date, the collaboration has led to the recovery or identification of more than 6,600 child victims and more than 2,700 criminal convictions of traffickers.
The FBI-led Operation Cross Country sweeps, which were held annually between 2008 and 2017, recovered more than 900 child victims and arrested nearly 1,400 traffickers.
The FBI is pairing victim specialists with investigators. Their mission is to provide victims with resources to help them in their situations, according to the FBI.
During a recent operation in Denver, Colorado,, a victim specialist was there while an agent and police detective interviewed a 17-year-old boy who had advertised himself online, the FBI explained. The victim specialist talked to the boy, who was not arrested, about the inherent dangers of his actions and plugged him into the local network of resources designed to help him.
“What we see is underage boys who are engaging in unsafe methods online where they agree to meet for a date in exchange for money or anything of value,” said Anne Darr, a victim specialist on the Denver Field Office’s Rocky Mountain Innocence Lost Task Force. “It’s important that we intervene and that we provide education, awareness, and resources to them. So that way they don't go back online and meet somebody who could be an online predator.”
In his remarks, Director Wray said the FBI’s focus on the issue is not confined to a single week or month each year. The effort to find and stop traffickers and recover kids is ongoing and continuous.
“Our agents, intelligence analysts, professional staff, and victim specialists work tirelessly before, during, and after these operations to make sure that victims get the help they need to reclaim their lives,” Wray said.