‘Operation Broken Hearts’: Police arrest 37 in child sex trafficking operation

Phoenix police say 37 people (not all pictured) have been arrested in connection to a large scale child sex crimes and human trafficking operation, as reported By Brent Corrado on Fox26 Houston. Every year, agencies partner to conduct these kind of operations in an ongoing effort to reduce child and human sex trafficking, according to police.

The Phoenix, Mesa, Tempe, and Chandler Police Departments partnered with Homeland Security and the Arizona Attorney General’s Office for “Operation Broken Hearts,” an undercover operation targeting sexual predators engaged in child sex crimes and human trafficking, authorities said on February 19th.

Police say the suspects, who range in ages from 21 to 66 years of age, solicited sex acts with undercover officers and were subsequently arrested.

Throughout the operational period, officers and undercover detectives placed ads on websites and apps which are commonly sought out by suspects seeking illegal sex acts with children. These suspects solicited and/or brokered deals for various sex acts and were subsequently arrested.

The combined efforts of the agencies involved, are part of a nationwide effort to eliminate human and sex trafficking. If you have information about someone being trafficked, contact your local police department or the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 888-373-7888 or humantraffickinghotline.org

What say you Def-Con News readers? Likely the arrest of these 37 for child sex crimes and human trafficking is a mere small sample of what occurs. This undercover operation and these arrests involved Metro Phoenix AZ only. Try multiplying this by 50 or 100 or even more. You’d then be closer to guessing the actual number of such child sex crimes and human trafficking operations throughout the U.S.