19 Arrested in Targeting of Child Sex Peddlers

Prostitution rings from New York to Hawaii forced more than 30 children as young as 12 to have sex at truck stops, hotels and brothels, Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales said Friday, announcing a government crackdown.

Nineteen people have been arrested among 31 who have been indicted on charges of sexual trafficking in children, taking minors across state lines for prostitution and other crimes, Gonzales said.

The indictments, in Michigan, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, target the purported operators of four child prostitution rings. Some of the children had been reported missing or had run away because they had been abused at home, FBI assistant director Chris Swecker said.

“The abhorrent acts alleged in these charges include children being herded around the country as sex slaves, forced to work as prostitutes in brothels and at truck stops, and beaten at the hands of pimps and peddlers,” Gonzales said at a Justice Department news conference.

The heightened federal interest in stopping child prostitution is crucial because pimps often take children from one state to another, making it harder for local police to stop them, said John Rabun, vice president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

“If you’re bright as a pimp, and thank God a lot of them aren’t, you move them every two to three weeks,” Rabun said.

When he became attorney general in February, Gonzales said he would focus on reducing all forms of human trafficking.