Authorities call it a successful round up of child sex offenders, but it also shows how widespread the crime is in North Texas.

Authorities call it a successful round up of child sex offenders, but it also shows how widespread the crime is in North Texas.

The Dallas FBI office and some of the 70 law enforcement agencies that participated announced the results of Operation Soteria Shield on Tuesday.

These are the faces of the 244 men and women charged with exploiting children for the purpose of sex trafficking or pornography.

It’s the end of a month-long investigation by federal and local enforcement of a crime that authorities say is a year-round problem.

“The number of offenders arrested and the children rescued in this operation are stunning,” said Jay Combs, the U.S. Attorney Eastern District of Texas. “It’s stunning to hear them repeated here.”

Operation Soteria Shield, which began in April, led to the rescue of 109 children.

“During this operation, many of the children recognized or rescued were previously unidentified,” said Plano Police Department Assistant Chief Dan Curtis. “They’d never been reported missing. They had never had their abuse known to authorities.”

  • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
    6·
    20 hours ago

    The operation not only led to arrests and rescues but also to the seizure of terabytes of child abuse sex material through a collaborative effort that started 10 years ago and now includes 70 Texas law enforcement agencies.

    Started when Obama was in office, but the FBI will leave that out to make it appear that Trump’s admin was the lynchpin. (This is my prediction based on what I think of them. I’m not pretending it is fact.)