Homeland Security identifies 311 child victims of sexual exploitation in ‘cold cases’
More than a dozen international law enforcement organizations worked together under U.S. leadership to identify and locate victims of child sexual exploitation in a just-completed operation that officials say is likely the most successful of its kind.
In the three-week “surge” known as Operation Renewed Hope, which began July 17, investigators combing through sexually graphic internet material involving children, much of it on the dark web and some of it decades old, made probable identifications of 311 child victims and confirmed the rescue of several victims from active abuse.
Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), part of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, took the lead in the operation, which included representatives from the Justice Department, the FBI, the U.S. Marshals, Interpol and Europol, as well as 13 law enforcement agencies from Australia, Canada and countries in Europe and South America.
In many of the cases in which victims have been identified, HSI officials told NBC News that the material had existed for many years, but investigators were previously unable to identify the child victims or the adult abusers. Thanks to new facial recognition and artificial intelligence technology, there are now fresh leads in these formerly cold cases.
After they narrowed down a location or tentatively identified a victim, the investigators sent their new leads to the appropriate local law enforcement agency. The operation sent more than 100 leads to HSI field offices and 25 partnering countries. Some suspects in Canada and the United States have already been arrested.
The announcement comes a week after the FBI revealed it had identified dozens of victims of child sex trafficking and more than 100 suspects in a separate sweep called Operation Cross Country.
Mike Prado, deputy assistant director of the HSI Cyber Crimes Center, said the results of Operation Renewed Hope “exceeded our wildest expectations in the sense of being able to identify children who have been abused for, in many cases, years.”
He gave NBC News a tour of the operation while it was in progress, being careful to avoid showing any of the highly graphic material under review.
In one room, more than 20…
