109 children rescued, 244 arrested in Operation Soteria Shield, exposing widespread child exploitation in North Texas
Authorities call it a successful round up of child sex offenders, but it also shows how widespread the crime is in North Texas.
The Dallas FBI office and some of the 70 law enforcement agencies that participated announced the results of Operation Soteria Shield on Tuesday.
These are the faces of the 244 men and women charged with exploiting children for the purpose of sex trafficking or pornography.
It's the end of a month-long investigation by federal and local enforcement of a crime that authorities say is a year-round problem.
"The number of offenders arrested and the children rescued in this operation are stunning," said Jay Combs, the U.S. Attorney Eastern District of Texas. "It's stunning to hear them repeated here."
Operation Soteria Shield, which began in April, led to the rescue of 109 children.
"During this operation, many of the children recognized or rescued were previously unidentified," said Plano Police Department Assistant Chief Dan Curtis. "They'd never been reported missing. They had never had their abuse known to authorities."
The operation not only led to arrests and rescues but also to the seizure of terabytes of child abuse sex material through a collaborative effort that started 10 years ago and now includes 70 Texas law enforcement agencies.
"What started as a small team with a bold idea has grown into something very powerful," said Greg Willis, the Collin County District Attorney.
In a lot of these cases, authorities said the sex offenders never actually meet their victims face-to-face but use technology to coerce them into sending explicit images and videos.
The head of the Dallas FBI office said the methods used don't just involve social media but also online gaming systems.
"So I think for many of us, I'll speak for my generation, we were raised to be concerned about faceless strangers that might try to contact us or cause harm on the street, but we've moved past that," said Joseph Rothrock, the Dallas FBI Special Agent in Charge. "Again, predators have access to our children in our home through technology."
Authorities urge families to use parental controls on any devices kids use and be aware that there are more faces like these still out there.
