Feds rescue 69 child prostitutes; bust 99 pimps and hundreds of other adults in nationwide sting

A three-day federal crackdown on child prostitution across the country busted 99 pimps and led to the rescue of 69 teenage prostitutes in 30 states and the District of Columbia, the FBI announced.

The FBI said federal agents and local and state police rounded up more than 880 adults on charges related to the sexual exploitation of minors, human trafficking and prostitution activities.

The children and pimps were rounded up during a 72-hour nationwide sweep of 40 cities known as Operation Cross Country V, an annual crackdown targeting child prostitution as part of the Innocence Lost National Initiative, the FBI said.

More than 2,100 police and law enforcement officials were involved in the operation.

The rescued children were between 12-and- 17-years-old. Twenty-four children, nearly a third of those rescued, were found in the greater Seattle region, the largest group to be found in a single city.

The Seattle area has led the nation in number of juvenile prostitutes saved for the past three years, an FBI spokesman told local radio station KPLU.

FBI executive assistant director Shawn Henry told The Associated Press that child prostitutes are often recruited by loose knit groups that specifically seek out young drug users or scared runaways.

"There are groups of people out there preying on naive kids who don't have a good sense of the way of the world," Henry said. "Sometimes there's a threat of force, threats of violence. A lot these kids operate out of a sense of fear."

As part of the operation, Feds scoured truck stops, casinos, seedy city streets, websites and chat boards looking for prostitutes, pimps and Johns.

Seattle wasn't the only major city left red-faced after the nationwide sting. Police and agents in the Chicago area busted 39 adults and six pimps and rescued at least three underage girls, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

In the Bay Area, police and agents busted 72 pimps, prostitutes and Johns and recovered three children, the Contra Costa Times reported.

Authorities are working with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to confirm their identities, the FBI said.

Nearly 1,250 child prostitutes have been located and removed from prostitution since 2003, when the FBI and the Justice Department launched the Innocence Lost National Initiative.