this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2025
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109 children rescued, 244 arrested in Operation Soteria Shield, exposing widespread child exploitation in North Texas (www.fbi.gov)
submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by Pro@programming.dev to c/technology@lemmy.world
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The North Texas Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and FBI Dallas’s North Texas Child Exploitation Task Force announce the conclusion of Operation Soteria Shield, a month-long collaborative enforcement effort conducted in April 2025 aimed at rescuing children from online sexual exploitation and bringing perpetrators to justice. This operation was run in conjunction with the National Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and was jointly managed by the FBI Dallas Division, Dallas Police Department, Plano Police Department, Wylie Police Department, and Garland Police Department.

More than 70 Texas law enforcement agencies joined forces throughout the month of April to combat the exploitation of children in the digital space. These agencies leveraged the expertise of highly skilled computer crimes investigators that worked around the clock to identify victims and apprehend offenders engaged in the production, distribution, and possession of child sexual abuse material.

Operation Soteria Shield resulted in the rescue of 109 children and the arrest of 244 offenders. In addition to these enforcement actions, investigators seized extensive volumes of digital evidence, including terabytes of illicit data stored on electronic devices that were used in the commission of these crimes. These devices are undergoing forensic analysis and may lead to further arrests and the identification of additional victims.

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[–] WhiteRice@lemmy.ml 30 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

At first glance I thought this was like a home school cult but the truth is even more abhorrent and unimaginable.

Was this roughly 100 families or like a large network for human trafficking? I may be naive but I have trouble believing that either would exist at such a scale.

[–] webghost0101@sopuli.xyz 31 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

For a country the size of the us a hunderd is a very small amount.

There are troubled teen services where parents pay to have their “problem” kids “legaly” abducted to send to reeducation camps. Suprise suprise they return with ptsd and tell stories of both torture and other abuse. Those “legal” institutions can have 100+ kids enrolled any given time.

I am also sure you heard of Epstein. These horrors definitely exist on very big scales with huge network as fucked up as that is.

[–] gaja@lemm.ee 20 points 2 days ago (1 children)

50,000 minors are trafficked for sex each year.

It is the second most profitable criminal industry.

There are millions upon millions of child sexual abuse material files reported each year.

https://ourrescue.org/education/research-and-trends/human-trafficking-statistics

[–] Star@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

That's horrifying. What the fuck is wrong with people? I cannot imagine being complicit with any part of the chain of monsters required to construct a profit from this.

[–] gaja@lemm.ee 2 points 1 day ago

I spent way too long researching the morning. That industry implies a much greater population that is attracted to children. Things get more nuanced. People are attracted to different stages, like prebubesant, early adolescence, and mid to late adolescence. It seems like an important distinction because this is a common mental disorder.

I was ready to write this comment about my fear that there's a bunch of evil pedophiles living among us who are simply deterred by legal or social pressures.

It seems more like the extreme stigma of pedophilia has prevented individuals from seeking assistance and has resulted in more child sexual abuse. This sort of disorder can be caused by experiencing this abuse at a younger age.

When I was religious, we worked closely with an organization to help victims of trafficking. We had their stories. They entered our lives. I took care of some of these kids. As a victim of sexual abuse when I was kid, I had a hatred for these kinds of people. I feel like my brain is melting seeing how there is a high chance of people in my life being attracted to children. This isn't really to justify the industry. I'm just realizing that general harassing people openly about it might not be helping the situation.