More than 30 missing children rescued in Texas human trafficking crackdown

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Federal and local authorities saved more than 30 missing children and uncovered multiple human trafficking operations targeting vulnerable youth during a coordinated crackdown across Texas.

The effort, centered in San Antonio, resulted in arrests, felony warrants and several new investigations as part of a joint mission known as Operation Lightning Bug.

U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) teams from San Antonio, Del Rio, Midland and Pecos joined forces. with the San Antonio Police Department Missing Persons Unit, Special Victims Unit, Street Crimes Unit and Undercover Operatives. Together, they combed Texas and national crime databases to identify at-risk juveniles and coordinate recovery efforts.

More than 30 children were rescued in the San Antonio area. (Loop Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

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Results included:

  • Three arrests for harboring fugitives
  • Nine felony warrants executed.
  • Six victims of sex trafficking rescued and brought to support services
  • Five new human trafficking investigations launched
  • More than 30 missing minors found
  • More than 120 additional minors have voluntarily returned home after removing their names from missing persons databases.

Each recovered child was interviewed by the SAPD Special Victims Unit to determine whether they had been victimized. Survivors were referred to support services provided by agencies such as health and social services to provide long-term care and protection.

US Marshal Susan Pamerleau for the Western District of Texas: says the statement that protecting children remains central to the mission of the Marshals Service.

“The safety of our children is the safety of our communities, and justice requires that we protect those who cannot protect themselves,” Pamerleau said. “Through Operation Lightning Bug, we are reaffirming our promise to protect our most vulnerable and make our communities safer.”

U.S. Marshals disrupt human trafficking operations

The U.S. Marshals Service and local law enforcement agencies are interdicting human trafficking operations. (U.S. Marshals Service, Benny J. Davis III)

San Antonio Police Chief William McManus echoed those sentiments, calling the effort an example of law enforcement unity.

“Every suspect arrested, a juvenile returned home and a survivor was brought out of harm's way,” McManus said. “This operation demonstrates what can be achieved when law enforcement comes together to protect children.”

U.S. Marshals conducted the probe under the Trafficking in Persons Justice Act of 2015, which gives the agency the authority to return missing or endangered children, even if there are no fugitives involved. This legislation also led to the creation of the USMS Missing Children Division, which leads similar recovery efforts across the country.

Four people have been charged in Texas with smuggling children across the border by posing as their parents.

USMS-Operation-We-Find-You-1

The U.S. Marshals Service said protecting children remains central to its mission. (US Marshals Service)

Kirsta Lyberg-Melton, founder and CEO of the Human Trafficking Institute, said operations like this highlight a larger problem of exploitation in Texas and beyond.

“Human trafficking is something city ​​of San Antonio and the state of Texas and the nation have been grappling with this for a significant period of time,” she said in an interview with Fox News Digital.

She said traffickers often target instability – children without stable housing, food or family support.

“These are easy targets for traffickers,” she warned. “They exploit these needs by offering these items and then collecting debts and putting these children in a position where they can exploit them for sex or labor.”

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Lyberg-Melton said the public often underestimates how widespread human trafficking — and how much it has changed, especially online.

“Human trafficking is the exploitation of men, women and children for forced sex or forced labor by a third party for profit or gain. It’s always been there,” Lyberg-Melton said. “What wasn’t really there was people’s understanding of this crime and their knowledge that it was happening everywhere!”

She added that traffickers are increasingly using technology to recruit and control victims.

“As technology advances, traffickers … are the first to adopt and adapt technology,” she said. “The Internet allows them to communicate with victims and buyers far beyond their region.”

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Traffickers are increasingly using technology to prey on victims, said Kirsta Lyberg-Melton. (Kurt “Cyberguy” Knutsson)

Lyberg-Melton emphasized that human trafficking is not limited to border regions.

“American citizens can traffic American citizens on American soil,” she said, adding that most human trafficking cases prosecuted in the United States involve American criminals exploiting American victims.

“The biggest myth is that it happens somewhere else and happens to someone else,” she said. “Until we start recognizing that people have value, no matter who they are, where they come from, what they have done or what has been done to them, we will continue to justify a certain level of exploitation.”

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Lyberg-Melton also described sexual extortion as a growing form of human trafficking that uses coercion to coerce sexual behavior or images.

“When you have someone who you hold something over their head and then ask them for additional photos or additional threatening sexual behavior … that is quite frankly a form of human trafficking,” she said.

If you suspect someone is a victim of human trafficking, call the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888 or report anonymously to: humantraffickinghotline.org.

Stevenie Price covers crime including missing persons, murder and migrant crime. Send story tips to [email protected].

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