9 children located in Indiana during national sex trafficking sting: FBI

INDIANAPOLIS — A major law enforcement operation to locate and assist victims of human trafficking and related crimes resulted in the location of more than 200 victims during the first two weeks of August.

In Indiana, nine victims and three sex offenders were located in a joint effort between the FBI, U.S. Marshals and IMPD missing persons.

The operation, known as Operation Cross Country is a coordinated operation among the FBI, other federal agencies, state agencies, local police and social services agencies across the country to find and assist victims of human trafficking, particularly child victims.

According to FBI Indianapolis, the victims and sex offenders were located and/or identified on Aug. 12.

“The initiative really just takes a concentrated period of time where we’re just focused on the problem of child sex trafficking,” Section Chief Jose Perez, who oversees violent crime investigations in the FBI said. “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 total, the FBI was able to locate 37 missing children and 141 adults during the nationwide operation.