AST August 2019 Magazine AST August 2019 Magazine | Page 50
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August 2019 - Edition 36
FBI victim specialists (pictured in Atlanta, top, and Denver) were an integral part of operational
teams during Operation Independence Day. Their mission is to provide victims with resources to
help them in their situations, but they also frequently serve as intermediaries between victim-wit-
nesses and investigators. (Courtesy of the FBI)
Operation Independence Day ID’s Over
100 Child Victims & 67 Sex Traffickers
By the FBI
The initiative during the month of
July, dubbed Operation Indepen-
dence Day, relied on more than 400
law enforcement agencies work-
ing on FBI Child Exploitation and
Human Trafficking Task Forces in
each of the Bureau’s 56 field offic-
es .
A month-long FBI-led oper-
ation to identify and arrest
sex traffickers, and recover
child victims has resulted in
dozens of arrests across the
country and the identifica-
The sweep included undercover op-
tion and recovery of more erations and has led to the open-
than 100 juveniles.
ing of five dozen federal criminal
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