Law enforcement officers recently recovered 60 “critically missing” children in the Tampa Bay area of Florida over a two-week period in an effort dubbed Operation Dragon Eye.
Agencies including federal, state, and local law enforcement joined forces to rescue the children whose ages ranged from nine to 17 years old throughout the counties of Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Pasco, Fox 13 reported on Monday.
In a social media post on Monday, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier explained prosecutors worked with U.S. Marshals and extensive local law enforcement to perform the operation.
Uthmeier said officials arrested eight individuals and authorities are investigating additional human trafficking as a result.
“We will keep fighting evil head-on and bringing accountability to those who harm children,” he stated:
The charges against the individuals arrested included human trafficking, child endangerment, drug possession, and custodial interference, per the Fox article. The outlet noted, “The United States Marshals Service defines ‘critically missing’ children as ‘those at risk of crimes of violence or those with other elevated risk factors such as substance abuse, sexual exploitation, crime exposure, or domestic violence.’”
The operation was “the most successful missing child recovery operation in America history,” the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) stated in its social media post.
The department also said its agents and analysts were proud to work with U.S. Marshals, adding that “Florida doesn’t look the other way — we hunt predators and bring kids home.”
Per the Fox article, several groups including More Too Life, the Children’s Home Network, Bridging Freedom, Bridges of Hope, Family Support Services Pasco Pinellas Counties, and Redefining Refuge provided resources to those recovered during the operation.
When speaking of children who have been victims of such circumstances, Dr. Katherine Gomez of the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice told WFLA, “Oftentimes these young people have felt like there’s no one in their corner. There’s nobody that’s helping them. They feel alone, they feel abandoned. They feel like they have to look out for themselves and no one else will.”
During the press conference about the recent recoveries, Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Mark Glass said everyone involved suffers from trauma because of what they witness in these cases.
He said, “They have to see everything that happens to these children, and we need to pray for them because they had to take that burden home.”
Glass noted the operation was a huge blow to human trafficking and the perpetrators would be locked up. However, that did not mean the threat was over.
Meanwhile, Bill Berger, the U.S. Marshal of the Middle District of Florida, added that “If the offenders are not apprehended, they will reconnect with these children. They are, in my opinion, leeches.”
