The Dept. of Justice news release linked in that story indicates that this wasn't the bust of one big trafficking ring but rather a series of parallel operations that took place in the first half of August:
Based on the "XII," I take it this is a periodically repeated exercise.The FBI-led nationwide initiative focused on identifying and locating victims of sex trafficking and investigating and arresting individuals and criminal enterprises involved in both child sex and human trafficking.
"Human trafficking is among the most heinous crimes the FBI encounters,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. “Unfortunately, such crimes—against both adults and children—are far more common than most people realize. As we did in this operation, the FBI and our partners will continue to find and arrest traffickers, identify and help victims, and raise awareness of the exploitation our most vulnerable populations.”
In addition to the identification and location of adolescent victims, the FBI and its partners located 141 adult victims of human trafficking. Agents and investigators also identified or arrested 85 suspects of child sexual exploitation and human trafficking offenses. Those suspects identified will be subject to additional investigation for potential chargers. The average age of victims located in similar operations is approximately 15.5 years old, while the youngest victim discovered during this operation was 11 years old.
As part of Operation Cross Country XII, FBI special agents, intelligence analysts, victim specialists, and child adolescent forensic Interviewers working in conjunction with 200 state, local, and federal partners and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) conducted 391 operations over the two-week period.
The news does make me wonder about the wisdom of recent Republican attacks on the FBI.
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Edited to add more news from the Dept. of Justice: a former member of Congress, "Terrance John 'TJ' Cox, 59, of Fresno, is charged with 15 counts of wire fraud, 11 counts of money laundering, one count of financial institution fraud, and one count of campaign contribution fraud." Cox is a Democrat. He represented the southern portion of the San Joaquin Valley from 2019-2021. The alleged crimes predate his Congressional term, although as noted, some of the apparent graft related to his 2018 campaign.
Another reason Republicans should want to support the FBI!