‘INNOCENCE LOST’ STING II (Another 47 Kids Rescued)

FBI

In a Virginia hotel that ordinarily caters to business travelers and vacationers, FBI agentsand local police officers were encountering a different kind of clientele.  Throughout Fridayevening, a handful of prostitutes came thinking they had made an appointment with a customer inRoom 403.  Instead, it was a sting.  The customer was really an undercover cop. The arrests that followed were similar to those playing out across
the nation last week during a three-day sweep called Operation Cross Country II.  Thegoal: get child victims of prostitution off the streets and into protective services and disruptthe individuals and organizations that victimize children.  A total of 630 law enforcementpersonnel participated in Operation Cross Country II.  The operation resulted in 642 arrests(including 73 pimps and 518 prostitutes), the disruption of 12 large-scale prostitution operations,and, most importantly, the rescue of 49 children, ages 13 to 17 years old, from the sextrade.  Ten of those children had been listed as missing in the NCMEC database.