Federal agents in Colorado and Wyoming arrested six pimps and rescued nine children they are accused of prostituting as part of a three-day, nationwide sweep aimed to curb child sex trafficking.

The nine children were among 105 recovered in 76 cities throughout the country, the FBI announced Monday. At least 150 pimps nationwide face state and federal charges as a result of Operation Cross Country VII.

Local authorities also arrested more than two dozen johns who are accused of soliciting children for sex, online or otherwise.

“This is a real problem in our community,” said Amanda Finger, co-founder of the Denver-based Laboratory to Combat Human Trafficking. The sweep, she said, could be an educational opportunity “for people to realize it occurs in our neighborhoods, in our hospitals, in our schools.”

The spotlight could also bring more cases to light, Finger said.

Details about the local arrests were scarce because pending criminal charges and indictments kept authorities from discussing specific cases. Denver FBI spokesman Dave Joly did not release the names of those arrested.

But the FBI said that generally, part of its effort had been monitoring websites such as Backpage.com, where pimps are known to advertise sex for sale. The children were mostly girls ages 13 to 17. Social media aided in many of their rescues.

The Denver FBI office, which includes Colorado and Wyoming, was among those that saw the largest number of children rescued during the weekend initiative. Only San Francisco, where agents found 12 children, and Milwaukee and Detroit, where authorities recovered 10 children, ranked higher, the FBI said. The Denver division also identified 11 pimps, cited or arrested 51 other adults for prostitution; arrested 25 johns, charged six people with other crimes, such as drugs or outstanding warrants, and seized 20 vehicles during the sting.

The local operation involved 62 law enforcement officers from 16 departments, including Denver, Colorado Springs, Arapahoe and Douglas counties, Greenwood Village, Lakewood, Pueblo and other jurisdictions.

The operation was part of the Innocence Lost National Initiative, which has pulled more than 2,700 children from the streets since it launched in 2003, the FBI said. The Rocky Mountain Innocence Lost Task Force rescued 49 children from trafficking last year alone, Joly has said. Between 2006 and 2011, Denver police identified and recovered 47 children from similar “commercially sexually exploitative environments,” he said.

“This problem does exist, and it does exist in the metro area,” Joly said Monday.

In an unrelated case in December, eight people, some of whom had connections to the Crips street gang, were indicted after prosecutors said they used online ads to sell sex with underage girls to clients in several Colorado cities and beat the girls when they did not comply.

In earlier national sweeps, child prostitutes were rescued at major sporting events, such as the NCAA Final Four and Super Bowl, Ron Hosko, assistant director of the FBI’s criminal investigative division, told reporters at a news conference in Washington.

He said child prostitution remains a “persistent threat.”

Such police responses to the problem can have an impact if young victims are given access to long-term care and resources, said Emily Lafferrandre, director of education and advocacy at Prax(us), another Denver-based agency that aims to fight domestic youth sex trafficking and connect victims to service providers. It can be easy to slip back into that world without the right support, she said.

“I don’t think there’s any silver bullet in this situation,” she said. “It’s long-term, substantive support.”

Sadie Gurman: 303-954-1661, sgurman@denverpost.com or twitter.com/sgurman

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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The Colorado Network to End Human Trafficking can be reached at 1-866-455-5075