BATON ROUGE, LA—Joined by numerous police departments, sheriff’s offices, and state and federal agencies at a press conference June 16, 2017—Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry announced the arrests of 51 people on child exploitation charges as part of Operation Broken Heart.

The Louisiana Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force participated in Operation Broken Heart IV, a two-month long National ICAC investigative and prevention effort alongside 60 coordinated task forces across the country—representing over 3,500 federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies.

“My office is committed to doing all we can to protect our State’s children from predators,” said General Landry. “The great teamwork by all our ICAC partners, including the LBI’s examiners and investigators, has resulted in the arrests of 51 people from all parts of Louisiana.”

“Most of us cannot imagine the horrific things these dedicated law professionals have to see and hear to bring child predators to justice,” added General Landry. “But all of us are grateful for their work to save children’s lives.”

In an effort to raise awareness of the importance of Internet safety, the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, which includes 155 law enforcement agencies throughout Louisiana, arrested the 51 perpetrators from April 1st to May 31st on charges ranging from possession, distribution, and production of sexual abuse images and videos of children to solicitation of a minor.

“Sometimes the number of arrests and charges causes us to forget there are victims in these situations,” explained General Landry. “Every time a video or image is viewed, a child is re-victimized; and unfortunately, we have seen that a high percentage of people who engage in child pornography end up being hands on abusers.”