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Audio Transcript

Mollie Halpern: An FBI-led operation targeting commercial child sex trafficking results in the recovery and rescue of 82 minors.

Operation Cross Country also led to the arrests of 239 traffickers and their associates.

For the first time ever, Operation Cross Country took place with law enforcement partners around the world, making it the largest in the initiative’s history.

Authorities in Cambodia, Thailand, and the Philippines recovered 25 children, including a 2-year-old girl.

In Canada, as part of a corresponding effort, authorities recovered 16 children.

FBI Director James Comey…

Director James Comey: These children trapped in this hell need a hero, and the men and women who work for us—federal agents, state agents, local police officers, and partners around the world—are those heroes.

Halpern: The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, or NCMEC, also teamed up with the FBI and its law enforcement partners for this takedown.

John Clark, NCMEC’s president and CEO, says child sex trafficking is happening in communities across the country.

John Clark: We need moms and dads and teachers and neighbors and everybody working hand in hand to try to identify where this situation is happening so that we can bring the right resources to bear to fight child sex trafficking.

Halpern: This was the 10th annual Operation Cross Country, but the FBI works year-round to rescue trafficking victims and arrest their exploiters.

With FBI, This Week, I’m Mollie Halpern of the Bureau.