33 children rescued in Los Angeles: they were missing and were victims of human trafficking

A large-scale operation in Los Angeles, involving several police agencies, resulted in the rescue of

33 children

who were missing.

Some of them were victims of sexual exploitation, as reported by the FBI this Saturday in a press release. 

The '

Operational lost angels'

 began on 11 January, the month of awareness about trafficking, and was conducted by federal researchers with the support of the LAPD and two dozen other law enforcement agencies in California and other state. 

The authorities found several minors who had already been victims of sexual crimes in the past.

"

Victims may not identify themselves as trafficking victims

or may not even realize that they are being trafficked," authorities said. 

Some of the rescued children had already been victims of sexual exploitation in the past, the FBI reported (Screenshot).

NBC News

Eight of the minors were victims of sexual exploitation at the time of their rescue.

Others had been victims of this crime in the past and were being wanted as “missing vulnerable children,” according to authorities, two of whom had been rescued multiple times from a place where sex trafficking usually occurs. 

The FBI indicated that

it is not uncommon for victims to return

to these spaces by force or under threats.

"This damaging cycle shows the difficulties faced by victims and also by law enforcement agencies when they try to prevent them from returning to an abusive situation," the authorities say. 

[Operation against human trafficking ends with one injured and several detainees in California]

One person, whose identity was not disclosed, was arrested on suspicion of human trafficking.

Some of the victims were also arrested for minor crimes, such as violating probation or robbery.

In fiscal year 2020, the FBI initiated 664 human trafficking investigations nationwide, resulting in the arrest of 473 traffickers.

Your baby is sent across the border with a teenage girl

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents reported that after an arrest at the border, they discovered that

an Ecuadorian couple was

trying to bring their one-year-old daughter to the United States undocumented.

The couple

left the little girl in charge of a

17-year-old

American girl

to pass her through a border checkpoint between Mexico and Texas, authorities said in a statement Friday. 

Rescued a group of immigrant victims of human trafficking in Houston

Dec. 4, 202000: 24

Authorities found the case, classified as human trafficking, on January 20 when CBP agents in El Paso, on the southern border of Texas,

detained four people

near the El Paso International Airport.

[This is the most dangerous border crossing in Latin America;

hundreds of Venezuelans use it daily]

In the operation, the agents discovered that the four people of Ecuadorian origin were carrying false documents and were trying to board a plane.

With information from NBC News and EFE Servicios.