Federal agents recover 52 children from prostitution

Law enforcement authorities have recovered 52 children and arrested 60 pimps allegedly involved in child prostitution, the FBI announced Monday.

More than 690 people in all were arrested on state and local charges, the FBI stated.

The arrests were made over the past three days as part of a nationwide law enforcement initiative conducted on the federal, state and local levels, the bureau said.

"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," Kevin Perkins, assistant director of the FBI's Criminal Investigative Division, said in a written statement.

"There is no work more important than protecting America's children and freeing them from the cycle of victimization."

The three-day operation, tagged Operation Cross Country IV, included enforcement actions in 36 cities across 30 FBI divisions nationwide. It is part of the FBI's ongoing Innocence Lost National Initiative, which was created in 2003 with the goal of ending sex trafficking of children in the United States.

The FBI swept through 36 cities in the last four days and rescued 52 child prostitutes, including four girls in the Portland metropolitan area, the bureau announced today.

Nearly 700 people, including 61 pimps, were arrested in a sweep called Cross Country IV, the fourth such initiative in the last two years. The sweeps, which commenced late last week, teamed FBI agents and local law enforcement agencies across the nation. 

They cited at least eight pimps, 29 women prostitutes and a john in Oregon and southwest Washington, the bureau reported.

Earlier this year, seven other child prostitutes in Oregon were rescued in the FBI's Cross Country III sweep.

"No child deserves the abuse and the violence these children face every day," said Arthur Balizan, special agent in charge of the bureau in Oregon, in a press statement. "We, as a society, will not tolerate what basically amounts to selling these kids as sex slaves."