Child prostitution sting nabs more than 100 in Bay Area
Wire Reports
October 28, 2008
More than 100 people have been arrested throughout the Bay Area as part of a nationwide FBI sting operation targeting child prostitution, an FBI spokesman said Monday.
Arrests were made over several days in Oakland, Concord, San Jose, Campbell, Morgan Hill, San Mateo, Santa Rosa, San Rafael and San Francisco, FBI spokesman Joe Schadler said.
Some children who were forced into prostitution were rescued as part of the operation, Schadler said.
Schadler said further details would be provided at a news conference by FBI and local law enforcement officials at the Oakland Police Department on Tuesday.
Earlier Monday FBI officials in Washington, D.C. announced that "Operation Cross Country II," a three-day undercover operation conducted last week, resulted in 642 arrests in 29 cities.
The 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.
Bay City News Service
