AST August 2019 Magazine AST August 2019 Magazine | Page 54

To date, the collaboration has led www.AmericanSecurityToday.com to the recovery or identifica- tion of more than 6,600 child victims and more than 2,700 criminal convictions of traf- fickers. A major element in 2019 all - Edition the FBI’s August 36 trafficking cases is the placement of victim specialists on opera- tional teams. Their mission is to provide vic- tims with resources to help The FBI-led Operation Cross them in their situations. Country sweeps, which were held annually between 2008 and 2017, recovered more than 900 child victims and arrested nearly 1,400 traffickers. But they also frequently serve as intermediaries between vic- tim-witnesses and investiga- tors. (See raw video from a Operation Cross Country actions in Denver, Colorado and Toledo, Ohio from Octo- ber 12-14, 2017. The FBI-led multi-agency law enforcement effort focused on recovering children and holding sex traffickers accountable. Courtesy of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and YouTube.) 52