Oct 28, 2008 7:47 pm US/Pacific
136 Arrests In Bay Area Child Prostitution Sting
SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) ―
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A girl is arrested by officers in Oakland.
CBS
Federal and local law enforcement officials announced Tuesday that a total of 136 people in the Bay Area were arrested as part of "Operation Cross Country II," which targeted child prostitution operations nationwide.
U.S. Attorney Joseph Russoniello joined FBI and local police representatives at a news conference at the Oakland Police Department Tuesday morning on the operation, which netted 642 arrests in 29 cities.
More than one-fifth of the total arrests the sting produced and nearly one-quarter of the child prostitutes rescued were in the Bay Area. Arrests were made in the past several days in Oakland, Concord, San Jose, Campbell, Morgan Hill, San Mateo, Santa Rosa, San Rafael and San Francisco, FBI spokesman Joe Schadler said.
"A bulk of the national work was done in this area," Schadler said.
The national arrests included 73 alleged pimps and 518 alleged prostitutes, the FBI reported.
In addition, 47 children working as prostitutes - who range in age from 13 to 17 - were rescued during the operation, according to the FBI.
Ten of those children had been listed as missing by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the FBI said.
According to the FBI, the arrests were able to disrupt 12 "large-scale" prostitution operations nationwide.
CBS 5 Investigates
rode along with officers during the sting.
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