ATLANTA — The Federal Bureau of Investigation announced Tuesday that 28 teens who were victims of sex trafficking were rescued in a national operation targeting human trafficking suspects.
The rescues and arrests were part of a nationwide sex trafficking operation called Operation Cross Country XII. The FBI said that over a two-week period in August, local and state agencies helped to locate 84 minor victims of child sex trafficking and child sexual exploitation and 37 missing children. The youngest victim who was rescued was just 11 years old.
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Channel 2 Action News streamed the news conference where agents announced how many children were rescued live on WSB Now on Tuesday.
Channel 2′s Audrey Washington was that news conference, where agents said of the victims rescued in metro Atlanta, 18 were missing children and nine were children who were being commercially exploited for sex. Agents told Washington that the children found in the metro Atlanta area ranged in age from 14 to 17 years old.
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Four human trafficking suspects were also arrested.
The FBI agents didn’t got into detail about how they found the victims and the suspects, but said online activity helped with the investigation.
“Numerous offenders were apprehended after detectives conducted online exploitation investigations seeking offenders who go online for the purpose of finding children,” Cobb County police Lt. Matthew Thomas Brown said.
Resources are being provided to the sex trafficking victims.
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