Of the 30 arrested adults, 17 were on sex offender registries and face charges on felony sex offender registration violations. | Pixabay/fsHH
Of the 30 arrested adults, 17 were on sex offender registries and face charges on felony sex offender registration violations. | Pixabay/fsHH
Five girls were rescued and 30 adults were arrested during a recent New Orleans human trafficking bust.
According to NBC News, the U.S. Marshals Service New Orleans Task Force, the New Orleans Police Department, and the Louisiana State Police collaborated to complete the mission, which they called “Operation Boo Dat,” which lasted from October to December. The five victims were ages 14 to 17.
Two of the rescued girls were sisters who were found in a Baton Rouge apartment and, according to the Marshals Service, “may be victims of adult(s) felony criminal sexual activities."
Of the 30 arrested adults, 17 were on sex offender registries and face charges on felony sex offender registration violations.
Those arrested included a third-tier sex offender who had been previously arrested for the first-degree rape of a 12-year-old girl, and another sex offender who was on the run out of San Patricio County, Texas, for an alleged aggravated assault of a 14-year-old.
A 17-year-old girl was also arrested in Hammond, Louisiana, in connection with the human trafficking charges.
"With critical assistance from our state and local partners along with Crimestoppers GNO, we continue our daily efforts to make the Eastern District of Louisiana safer," Eastern District of Louisiana U.S. Marshal Scott Illing said, according to KSL News.
More than 100 compliance checks were either attempted or completed in Jefferson and Orleans parishes to determine whether individuals were sex offenders.
"The results of this operation were only accomplished via law enforcement teamwork and USMS New Orleans Task Force – along with our local, state, and federal partners – continue to support the Sex Offender Investigations and Missing Child Unit missions of the USMS along with ongoing investigations of violent felony offender fugitives across the Eastern District of Louisiana," Illing said.
The National Human Trafficking Hotline reports that since 2007, there have been 1,020 cases of human trafficking in Louisiana with 1,481 individuals who had a high likelihood of being victims and 1,319 individuals who had a moderate likelihood of being trafficking victims.
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