12 alleged pimps arrested in child sex trafficking sting

An FBI sting operation rescued 19 teenage girls who were peddled as prostitutes in metro Detroit and elsewhere in Michigan, authorities announced.

Twelve pimp suspects also were arrested through the operation that was part of a national effort to combat sex trafficking involving children as young as 12 years old, according to a news release Tuesday from the FBI. Locally, the girls ranged in age from 13 to 17, according to an FBI agent involved in the investigation.

FBI spokeswoman Jill Washburn said the sting took place over the course of the last week.

FBI Supervisory Special Agent Michael Glennon, who led the sting, said the pimp suspects, who were both male and female, mainly operated out of Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties.

"From the FBI's perspective, this is one of our highest priorities," Glennon said. "This is a cause we are dedicated to."

Glennon said the majority of the girls, some of whom were runaways, have been returned to their families. But some of the girls have since returned to the sex trade, even though the FBI had a victim specialist work with the girls.

"What she does is intervene on behalf of each child and works on placing the child back into the home," Glennon said. "Mostly all of them were returned to family members, but there were a couple instances where individuals were recovered at the same time during the operation, they went home, took off again and started doing it again."

The girls were originally located online and through street operations conducted by the Southeast Michigan Crimes Against Children Task Force, Glennon said.

"There's a number of different venues that we go, predominately they’re online," Glennon said, adding that in the past they've located victims through social media apps, group chats, at casinos and truck stops.

Glennon said criminal charges are likely forthcoming for the exploiters, who may be charged at either a state or federal level, depending on the circumstances.

Glennon said the operation is something the FBI does on an "annual basis" to target child prostitution. The local arrests were not part of a larger ring, Glennon said.

"These are all isolated incidents, but ... the inherent nature of prostitution is somewhat fluid, so it's not uncommon for one girl who starts working for one pimp to go to another pimp," Glennon said. "There's a fluidity to this violation where people are interconnected."

FBI Director James Comey said in a news release that the agency would "continue to work with our partners to end the scourge of sex trafficking in our country.”

"When kids are treated as a commodity in seedy hotels and on dark roadsides, we must rescue them from their nightmare and severely punish those responsible for that horror," Comey said.

The sting announced Tuesday was part of the larger Operation Cross Country IX. The nationwide effort led to 149 sexually-exploited children being rescued and more than 150 pimps and others arrested, according to a news release Tuesday from the FBI.

"More than 500 law enforcement officials took part in sting operations in hotels, casinos, truck stops, and other areas frequented by pimps, prostitutes, and their customers. The youngest recovered victim was 12 years old," according to the news release.

On mobile? Watch video here.

The Detroit sting operation was among the most successful in the country, according to the FBI.

“Our office is pleased with the success of the operation in metro Detroit, but we, along with all of our law enforcement partners, do not stop here," said David Gelios, special agent in charge of the FBI Detroit Division. "This is all part of an ongoing effort to continue to free victims of human trafficking, and arrest the individuals that commit these crimes.”

Dearborn Police Chief Ronald Haddad said at least two of the arrests and the rescue of one of the children occurred in his city.

Lisa Halushka, assistant dean and professor at Western Michigan University Cooley Law School, said children forced into sex work often come from neglected, marginalized populations and are promised they'll be cared for if they cooperate. But instead, they're forced into servitude.

"What you're dealing with is the underprivileged, weak and vulnerable," she said, adding that pimps "prey upon that."

Since the FBI's Innocence Lost National Initiative started in 2003, about 4,800 sexually exploited children have been recovered and more than 2,000 pimps and others have been convicted, including at least 15 cases resulting in life sentences, according to the FBI. Under the initiative, the FBI partners with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, along with state and local law enforcement partners across the country, to combat criminal enterprises involving commercial sex trafficking of children.

More information on Innocence Lost is available here.

Contact Katrease Stafford: kstafford@freepress.com or 313-223-4759.