Dallas City Wire

The FBI's Dallas field office participated in a nationwide operation last month that located dozens of child sex trafficking and sexual exploitation victims, according to several FBI announcements.

The children were among hundreds of human trafficking victims nationwide rescued during Operation Cross Country XII, the Dallas field office said in an Aug. 17 Twitter post.

"Operation Cross Country, a coordinated operation among the FBI, other federal agencies, state and local police and social services agencies, resulted in the recovery of more than 200 human trafficking victims during the first two weeks of August," the Twitter post said.

The FBI's Dallas field office covers 137 counties in north Texas and portions of east and west Texas.

The Twitter post linked to a press release released by the FBI two days earlier that described the coordinated operation that included other federal agencies, state and local law enforcement and social services agencies nationwide "to find and assist victims of human trafficking, particularly child victims."

"The initiative really just takes a concentrated period of time where we're just focused on the problem of child sex trafficking," said FBI Section Chief Jose Perez, who oversees the FBI's violent crime investigations. "What we do is we sit down with our local partners and our task forces and identify certain areas where we know sex trafficking is prevalent, and we’ll dedicate resources and efforts to identify and remove victims from those areas."

In a separate press release issued the same day, the FBI said the operation located 84 child sex trafficking and child sexual exploitation victims during the nationwide operation.

The nationwide enforcement operation also located 37 "actively missing children" and 141 adult human trafficking victims, and arrested 85 suspects of child sexual exploitation and human trafficking offenses.

"Those suspects identified will be subject to additional investigation for potential charges," the separate press release said. "The average age of victims located during this year's Operation Cross Country was 15.5, while the youngest victim discovered was 11 years old."

All forms of human trafficking are a priority for the U.S. Department of Justice, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in the separate press release.

"The Justice Department is committed to doing everything in our power to combat the insidious crimes of human trafficking that devastate survivors and their families," Garland said. "I am grateful to the dedicated professionals of the FBI and our law enforcement partners across the country for their tireless work to rescue trafficking survivors, including exploited children, to investigate and prosecute the perpetrators of trafficking crimes, and to provide the services and support that survivors need and deserve."

FBI special agents, victim specialists, intelligence analysts and child adolescent forensic interviewers participated in the operation, along with more than 200 state, local and federal partners and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). Agency participants conducted 391 operations during the two-week period.

"The success of Operation Cross County reinforces what NCMEC sees every day," NCMEC President and CEO Michelle DeLaune said in the separate press release. "Children are being bought and sold for sex in communities across the country by traffickers, gangs and even family members. We're proud to support the FBI’s efforts to prioritize the safety of children. This national operation highlights the need for all child serving professionals to continue to focus on the wellbeing of children and youth to prevent them from being targeted in the first place."