Some of the children were abused or trafficked, officials add.
The U.S. Marshals Service and local officials announced the recovery of dozens of missing children and seven arrests made in an operation across Southern California.
In a news release issued on March 9, the U.S. Marshals said that it and other agencies carried out a week-long child recovery campaign, which it called “Operation Safe Return,” that resulted in the recovery of 37 children.
Authorities had identified more than 50 children aged 14 to 17 as missing in Riverside County, and more cases in San Bernardino, Orange, and Los Angeles counties were later identified, according to a press release from the agency. Other children were identified in Arizona, Nevada, and Northern California, it said.
The children who were found in the operation received services to help “facilitate their reunification with legal guardians or find appropriate placement,” said the U.S. Marshals, adding that the primary goal of the operation was to “recover and safely locate critically missing children.”
The agency defines critically missing individuals as those who are at a higher risk of being exposed to serious threats, sexual exploitation, crime, substance abuse, or domestic violence, according to the press release.
The Riverside County Sheriff’s Office said that some of the children who were recovered were victims of crimes such as sex trafficking or sexual assault, according to a news release. Seven people were arrested in connected to the operation, including one person who was arrested on federal child sex trafficking charges that was conducted by Homeland Security Investigations, run by the Department of Homeland Security.
“We will never stop fighting to protect California children and bring them home. Through close collaboration between state and federal authorities, we were able to identify, locate, and safely recover 37 vulnerable children while holding those responsible for their exploitation accountable,” said California Attorney General Rob Bonta in a statement. “Finding missing children and bringing them home safely is some of the most important work we can do.”
Additionally, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said that his state will “stand with victims and survivors, protect our most vulnerable, and do everything in our power to bring every child home safely.”
Riverside County Sheriff’s Office said that in the county, between 5,000 and 6,000 children go missing or run away from home each year while noting that most runaways return home after leaving. The operation focused primarily on juveniles who had been missing from one to 24 months, it said.
