Sex Traffickers, Child Exploitation, Montana 2019

Montana Sex Traffickers Busted in Operation Independence Day

In a major crackdown on sex trafficking, the FBI-led Operation Independence Day has recovered 103 child victims and arrested 67 sex traffickers in Montana.

The operation, which was carried out in July 2019, relied on the 86 FBI-led Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Forces (CEHTTFs) that leveraged the resources and intelligence of other federal, state, local, and tribal partners. Overall, more than 400 agencies participate in these task forces.

According to the FBI, the operation prioritized locating and rescuing missing minors who are at great risk for sexual exploitation, and arresting the traffickers exploiting them. To that end, through its partnership with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), FBI special agents and intelligence analysts reviewed information provided through NCMEC’s CyberTipline, to identify missing minor children at risk for sexual exploitation, and then worked with state and local partners to execute law enforcement activity designed to recover those children and arrest traffickers.

The health and welfare of recovered minor and adult trafficking victims was a further priority. To facilitate these efforts, the FBI’s Victim Services Division and victim specialists stationed in each of our 56 field offices also worked closely with the task forces during the operation to ensure recovered children received the help they needed. Victim specialists put internal and external resources in place before the operation to ensure victim assistance was a priority in the aftermath of the law enforcement operations.

“This initiative has two crucial goals: rescuing children being sold for sex and prosecuting their adult traffickers,” said Attorney General William P. Barr. “Child sex trafficking is a heinous crime that preys on the most vulnerable in our society. Perpetrators victimize children in communities throughout the country, and we are determined to find and rescue them. Through the FBI’s leadership, we have recovered thousands of child victims, and this latest operation adds to the success of that decades-long effort.”

No specific defendant or respondent was named in the source. Therefore, the following mandatory facts cannot be provided: Defendant/respondent REAL full name or legal entity name, exact criminal charges, city and state, exact date with month/day/year, sentence or outcome, and dollar amounts where applicable.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-mt/pr/innocence-lost-national-initiative-and-operation-independence-day-2019