FBI announces results of nationwide sex trafficking sting

As part of Operation Cross Country XI, FBI Denver Special Agent in Charge Calvin Shivers and Victim Specialist Anne Darr describe the primary role of the FBI’s national multi-agency initiative—to recover children who are being trafficked. (Video from FBI)

SALEM, Ore. – A special Federal Bureau of Investigation task force recovered more than 80 kids who were the victims of sex trafficking during a nationwide operation. Two of those children were found in Oregon.

“Operation Cross Country” is an initiative to recover sex trafficked minors and target criminal enterprises responsible for commercial sex trafficking, according to the FBI. Hundreds of local and state law enforcement officers partnered with the FBI and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to arrest a total of 120 traffickers.

“It can be easy to think that selling sex with children is so corrupt, so depraved that it couldn’t possibly happen in my town, my neighborhood, my school. But, as we find out every time we recover a child, these victims are here and their needs are very real,” said Loren Cannon, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in Oregon. “These kids are everyone’s responsibility, and they are counting on us — the FBI, local law enforcement, the community — to come together to give them a chance at a life we would all wish for our children.”

In Portland, two minor sex trafficking victims were recovered, with nine adult prostitutes arrested and/or cited. In Eugene and Salem, eleven adult prostitutes were arrested or contacted. One man was arrested by Salem police on a charge of promoting prostitution. Oregon agencies that partnered with the FBI include those in the areas of Portland, Eugene and Salem. No law enforcement agencies in southern Oregon were listed as participants by the FBI.

“We salute the FBI, our deputies and partner agencies in their large-scale effort to bring these individuals to justice,” said Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts.

“This operation isn’t just about taking traffickers off the street,” FBI Director Wray said. “It’s about making sure we offer help and a way out to these young victims who find themselves caught in a vicious cycle of abuse.”