kids rescued in prostitution busts

http://www.modbee.com/2033/story/339794.html

345 arrested, kids rescued in prostitution busts

WASHINGTON —
Hundreds of people have been arrested and 21 children rescued in what the FBI is calling a five-day roundup of networks of pimps who force children into prostitution.

The Justice Department says it targeted 16 cities as part of its "Operation Cross Country" that caps off five years of similar stings nationwide.

Many of the children forced into prostitution are either runaways or what authorities call "thrown-aways" - kids whose families have shunned them. Officials say they are preyed upon by organized networks of pimps who lure them in with shelter or drugs, then often beat, starve or otherwise abuse them until the children agree to work the streets.

"We together have no higher calling than to protect our children and to safeguard their innocence," FBI Director Robert Mueller said Wednesday. "Yet the sex trafficking of children remains one of the most violent and unforgivable crimes in this country."

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I am so glad that the children have been rescued. I only hope they receive the counselling they need and loving foster parents to help them deal with all they have gone through. As for the pimps I hope they all end up with big strong cellmates who find them attractive.