Three Dozen Missing California Teens Rescued, Some of Them Victims of Sex Traffickers

An extensive operation by the Riverside County Sheriff Office’s Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force, working with a host of other law enforcement agencies, has resulted in the rescue of more than three dozen missing teens found in California, Arizona, and Nevada.

In an effort called “Operation Safe Return,” Riverside, California, investigators identified 50 children between the ages of 14 and 17 who had been missing from one to 24 months and launched extensive investigations into the whereabouts of each child, discovering some of them in the two neighboring states.

Detectives focused on those teens because some 5,000 to 6,000 children run away or go missing each year in Riverside County alone, according to the sheriff’s department, with most of them returning home not long after leaving.

Of the 37 children safely recovered, operation supervisor Sgt. Aron Wolfe said in a statement:

Each child received victim advocacy services, medical support when necessary, and follow-up resources prior to being reunited with a legal guardian. Unfortunately, some of these children were identified as victims of various crimes, ranging from child sex trafficking to sexual assault. The operation resulted in seven arrests, including one federal arrest for child sex trafficking being conducted by Homeland Security Investigations.

The other 13 cases remain open.

Finding the missing teens involved partnering with police departments, social services agencies and victim advocacy groups as well as federal authorities that included the FBI, Homeland Security, and the U.S. Marshals Service.

The task force “remains committed to aggressively pursuing those who exploit children while working with our partners to ensure victims receive the care and protection they deserve,” Sgt. Wolfe concluded.

 Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the author of the New York Times true crime best seller House of Secrets and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.