Federal authorities arrested 205 suspects for allegedly targeting children for sex offenses, Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel announced on May 7 at a news conference in Washington.
“The operation resulted in the rescue of 115 children,” a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
The five-day sweep was an “unprecedented national operation” that snared suspected predators who “hide behind a computer and target our young children,” Bondi said.
She and Patel vowed to ensure that the suspects are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Some of the charges could carry life sentences upon conviction, Bondi said.
“If you harm our children, you will be given no sanctuary,” Patel said.
“There is no place we will not come to hunt you down. There is no place we will not look for you, and there is no cage we will not put you in, should you do harm to our children.”
Patel highlighted cases of several of the arrestees, including an illegal immigrant from Mexico who is accused of transporting a minor across state lines. A pair of police officers—one from Minneapolis and the other an ex-officer from the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington—were also among the suspects; Patel alleged they violated “not only the law but the public trust.”
Bondi urged parents to monitor their children’s online activity because seemingly innocent interactions can change “from instant message to instant nightmare.”
“Parents: They’re talking to your kids like they’re other children, and they’re not; they’re predators. They pose as children,” she said.
Sometimes, the alleged predators persuade children “to post explicit pictures of themselves” and then use those images “to try to blackmail the children,” Bondi said. Such cases are contributing to the escalating suicide rate among teens aged 14 to 17, Bondi said.
Patel said the enforcement effort, called “Operation Restore Justice,” demonstrates that the Department of Justice, under President Donald Trump, is prioritizing these types of investigations and prosecutions. Patel and Bondi commended the personnel who have dedicated themselves to bringing criminals who target children to justice.
These employees “don’t take breaks,” Patel said, thanking the FBI’s 55 field offices, more than 90 U.S. attorneys’ offices, among others, along with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.Bondi said working on cases of alleged “depravity” takes a toll on FBI agents and prosecutors.
“They are working tirelessly online, dealing with the dregs of our society ... the people that hide behind a computer and target our young children,” she said.
Bondi noted that the cases span the United States, “from California, to New York, to Florida.”
The Justice Department said in a press release that the cases “were brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.“ That program, launched in May 2006, ”marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims,” according to the department.
