DALLAS – Law enforcement officials in North Texas said 59 adults were arrested and face criminal charges related to online sexual abuse and exploitation of children. The task force also rescued 28 children during the operation that uncovered an array of online perversion.
On Friday, the North Texas Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and FBI Dallas Division’s Child Exploitation Task Force said that from Jan. 16 through Feb. 10, many highly skilled computer crimes investigators from agencies around North Texas participated in Operation Janus. The investigative effort sought to identify and rescue children forced into sexual acts and arrest the people responsible for the abuse of children as a result of trafficking images and videos of those acts online, NBC DFW rerported.
The operation concluded Friday with the arrest of 59 offenders and the rescue of 28 children. The arrestees now face at least 80 criminal charges. Operation Janus involved nearly three dozen law enforcement agencies from across North Texas and from as far away as Alaska, according to the news outlet.
“Operation Janus allowed us to collectively support each other by sharing resources and intelligence to catch predators in the act. It also allowed us to recover children and protect them from further harm,” said FBI Dallas Acting Special Agent in Charge James J. Dwyer.
According to authorities, the list of crimes that were uncovered ranges from meeting victims to possessing harmful material on electronics. Among those arrested were paramedics, firefighters, a teacher and a nurse. Some of the victims were not only young children but infants, NBC DFW learned.
“The people charged as a result of this operation preyed on some of our most vulnerable, our children. I applaud the dedication of these task force groups, including members of the Dallas Police Department, to bring these suspects to justice. We will never stop working to identify, locate and apprehend these predators to make our community safer for our children,” said Dallas Chief of Police Eddie Garcia.
“Our primary goal is to protect children. So we’ll go at it from that aspect first. And then the ripple effect of that is we’ll catch people that are making these types of offenses. So both forensically, reactively and proactively, we go after these individuals who are exploiting our children,” said Detective Jeff Rich, with the Plano Police Department.
Rich said many of the arrests were the result of leads generated through reporting to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
“Electronic service providers, the services you might use on cell phones or your computers, detect contraband material on their servers and they report that to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children who then forward that information to the affected law enforcement agencies,” explained Rich.
Electronic devices were seized during the course of the investigation. As the devices are being forensically examined, offenders may face additional charges.
Jennifer Hohman, an advocate who helps women and children who have been exploited in sex trafficking, said the arrests shed light on a bigger societal problem.
”For a month-long operation, it’s very representative of the vast number of people that are addicted to pornography, and what I believe is an epidemic in our country,” she said.
Hohman explained the progression that occurs when people look at illicit images and videos, which can oftentimes lead to action that puts even more children in harm’s way and also lead to sex trafficking.
“I would caution parents to take a good look at yourself, take a good look at the people that you have your children around, understand the environment in which you’re letting children have digital equipment in your home,” she said.
People from all walks of life, jobs and backgrounds are frequently snared in these operations.
“In some of these stings you see blue-collar workers, executives, all types, but in this specific one, there’s a number of first responders, and we expect first responders either help us in an unsafe situation, or we feel safe with them,” said Hohman. “Some of these were teachers who have direct access to our children. These are individuals that we’ve told our children are safe. Teachers, firemen, nurses, and so that’s extremely concerning in this particular operation. What do we tell our kids? Nobody’s safe? Right? So that’s why we have to educate. It just makes you wonder, where the hell the world is going?”
Click here to read the names of those arrested and the charges they face.
