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The New Jersey joint FBI operation with State Police, the Morris County Prosecutor's Office and police from Newark, Jersey City and Morris Township was part of a nationwide enforcement campaign dubbed “Operation Cross Country.”
Across the United States, similar operations the first two weeks in August identified and located a total of 84 minor victims of child sex trafficking and sexual exploitation while finding 37 actively missing children, the Justice Department said Monday.
The average age of victims 15½ years old. The youngest was 11, federal authorities said.
The bureau and its partners also located 141 adult human trafficking victims, they said.
Altogether, law enforcers arrested 85 people for child sexual exploitation and human trafficking offenses during “Operation Cross Country,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said Monday.
“Unfortunately, such crimes—against both adults and children—are far more common than most people realize,” FBI Director Christopher Wray noted.
"Victims of trafficking are treated like imprisoned servants,” said James Dennehy, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Newark Field Office. “They lose their freedom, their dignity, their identity, and often, their sense of self.”
The FBI produced a video that offers a glimpse into “Operation Cross Country”:
As part of the effort, FBI special agents, intelligence analysts, victim specialists, and child adolescent forensic Interviewers working in conjunction with over 200 state, local, and federal partners and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) conducted 391 operations over the two-week period.
The success of the operation “reinforces what NCMEC sees every day,” said center’s president and CEO, Michelle DeLaune. “Children are being bought and sold for sex in communities across the country by traffickers, gangs and even family members.”
Federal authorities couldn’t have rescued all those victims “without collaboration from the law enforcement community and the public,” said Dennehy of the New Jersey FBI office. “If you are a victim or if you think you have information about trafficking activities, reach out to your local police department or to the Newark Field Office at 1-800-CALL-FBI."
In addition to the law enforcement partners, Dennehy also thanked Jennifer Amaya, director of Outreach for Visions and Pathways; Danika Ali, an in-community counselor for Family First Counseling Services, and David B. Halperin, the assistant director of Psychiatry for Trinitas Regional Medical Center for their assistance.
Victim specialists provide key roles, the Justice Department said in a release.
First of all, they’re a “bridge” for victims who are wary of the system because they “help the victim establish positive relationships with law enforcement and ensure the human trafficking victim population receives any appropriate resources available to them,” the release says.
“Victim specialists also provide services based on the individual needs of human trafficking victims, to include crisis intervention, emergency food and clothing, transportation to receive emergency services, and locating shelter or housing,” it says. “The task forces in the recent operation included federal, state, local and tribal partners, with efforts in every state and even a few U.S. territories.”
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