The US Marshals lead various initiatives that bring together federal, state, and local law enforcement partners in an effort to reduce crime, arrest violent fugitives, and recover missing children. Photo by Shane McCoy/US Marshals.
The US Marshals Service recovered 16 missing children — including four suspected to be victims of child sex trafficking — in a series of raids and other actions over the last month, most in or around the Philadelphia region.
The Marshals Service announced the results of Operation Safeguard, a multiagency effort to recover endangered children, on Thursday. Ten other children marshals were seeking remain at large, including two children in active child sex trafficking investigations.
“I applaud the exceptional cooperation among our respective agencies in combating this most abhorrent affront to society,” said Eric Gartner, US marshal for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. “Our hope is for a better future for the 16 children we recovered. Our resolve remains steadfast in finding other children in peril.”
The operation ran from Feb. 15 to March 15. Marshals selected each case for the operation based on “high-risk factors” like child exploitation and sex trafficking, sexual abuse, physical abuse, or medical and mental health conditions.
The operation was a collaboration of the USMS, Philadelphia’s Department of Human Services, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and Bucks County Children Youth Social Services.
The USMS Missing Child Unit was established in 2015 to assist local agencies in high-profile missing child cases. Since its launch, the unit has helped recover 1,788 children. As of March 19, they have recovered 450 children this year so far.
Read Next:
Joshua Skovlund has covered the 75th anniversary of D-Day in France, multinational military exercises in Germany, and civil unrest during the 2020 riots in Minneapolis that followed the death of George Floyd. Born and raised in small-town South Dakota, he grew up playing football and soccer before serving as a forward observer in the US Army. After leaving the service, he earned his CrossFit Level 1 certificate and worked as a personal trainer while earning his paramedic license. He went on to work in paramedicine for more than five years, much of that time in the North Minneapolis area, before transitioning to a career in multimedia journalism. Joshua is married with two children. His creative outlets include Skovlund Photography and Concentrated Emotion, where he publishes poetry focused on his life experiences.
In a memo released Thursday, Austin called for the establishment of a suicide prevention working gro...
The Sea Dragon 23 exercises that started on Wednesday will culminate in more than 270 hours of in-fl...
In his latest poetry collection, Ranger-turned-writer Leo Jenkins turns away from war to explore cosmic themes of faith, fatherhood, and art.
The Pentagon on Thursday released video of what it said was a Russian fighter jet dumping fuel on a ...
From the mountains of Italy to the mountains of Afghanistan, the US Army’s 10th Mountain Division built its legendary reputation by fighting in some of the most inhospitable places in the world.
The roughly 2,500 U.S. troops are scattered around the country, largely in military installations in Baghdad and in the north.
Americans living in East Palestine, Ohio, and central Oklahoma are recovering from February disaster...
Mara E. Karlin, performing the duties of deputy undersecretary of defense for policy, said the agree...