Nationwide human trafficking operation recovers one Fort Worth minor

One juvenile found in a Fort Worth hotel was among 149 rescued last week during a nationwide human trafficking sweep conducted by the FBI and local agencies.

More than 150 people accused of being pimps were arrested, according to a news release from the FBI’s Dallas division Wednesday.

Three of the victims are transgender and three are males, said Allison Mahan, an FBI spokeswoman in Dallas.

The juvenile in Fort Worth was found in a hotel sting, Mahan told the Star-Telegram.

“The minor in Fort Worth was not a runaway, but the circumstances she was living in are unknown,” Mahan wrote in an email.

The youngest victim recovered last week was 12, Mahan said.

The initiative, Operation Cross Country IX, is led by the FBI and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Anyone who arranges for sex for pay with a person under 18 can be considered a human trafficker, said FBI Special Agent Deborah Michaels, who oversees the Child Exploitation Task Force in North Texas.

“It’s the modern-day slavery of a minor,” Michaels said.

She said human trafficking is hard to detect because of a lack of public awareness, reluctance of the children involved to speak out and extreme measures pimps take.

“You don’t even see the kids out on the streets anymore,” Michaels said. “It’s online. These kids can be in hotel rooms; they can be in houses.”

Human trafficking victims come from different backgrounds, Michaels said.

“They can be runaways. Throwaway kids. Homeless kids. Kids in and out of system. Kids who have their own substance abuse issues,” she said.

They usually come from poor and high-crime neighborhoods, have parents who are substance abusers and have less exposure to good employment opportunities, Michaels said.

They can have mental health problems.

In last week’s operation, 90 specialists provided on-scene direct services to sex-trafficking victims, and 105 children received services such as crisis intervention and medical services, food, clothing and shelter.

In addition to the Fort Worth case, four victims were found in Dallas and one suspected pimp was arrested in Dallas.

In the news release, Dallas FBI Special Agent in charge Thomas Class Sr. thanked the Fort Worth, Arlington, Dallas and Irving police departments for their help, and also the Texas Department of Public Safety and Homeland Security Investigations.

Each agency ran undercover operations to find juveniles involved in sex trafficking, Mahan said.

“Human trafficking is a monstrous and devastating crime that steals lives and degrades our nation,” Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in the news release. “As a result of the FBI’s outstanding coordination and exemplary efforts alongside state and local partners during Operation Cross Country, more children will sleep safely tonight, and more wrongdoers will face the judgment of our criminal justice system.”

This story was originally published October 14, 2015 at 6:54 PM with the headline "Nationwide human trafficking operation recovers one Fort Worth minor."