TAMPA, FL -- The FBI, along with Tampa Police and Hillsborough County Sheriff's deputies rescued two teen aged girls, who were forced into prostitution, agents said. The operation was part of a nationwide rescue sweep aimed at child prostitution and resulted in the rescue of more than 50 children.
In Hillsborough County, the child prostitutes were 16 and 17 years old. They were working out of local hotels. A total of 16 adults were arrested in the sweep, including 11 prostitutes, four pimps, and one customer, FBI Agent Dave Couvertier said.
The child prostitutes were not arrested. State welfare agents are working to reunite the girls with their families.
"Child prostitution continues to be a significant problem in our country, as evidenced by the number of children rescued through the continued efforts of our crimes against children task forces,” said Kevin Perkins, Assistant Director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division, in a prepared statement.
The sweep was named Operation Cross Country IV, and was run by the Innocence Lost task Force.
"It is repugnant that children in these times could be subjected to the great pain, suffering, and indignity of being forced into sexual slavery for someone else's profit," said Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer of the Criminal Division in the FBI's prepared statement.
The FBI says it has helped rescue 16 children forced into sexual slavery in Tampa Bay in just the past 16 months.
