United States Marshals were able to locate or recover an astonishing 225 missing children as part of a ten-week man hunt over 16 federal judicial districts called Operation We Will Find You.
The marshals work together with the National Center For Missing and Exploited Children across the country as part of the operation that focuses on areas with ‘high clusters’ of missing kids.
This operation resulted in 169 missing children being recovered and another 56 located as safe between March 1 and May 15 in 16 regions selected to participate, according to the Marshals Service.
At least 28 of the cases involving these children have been recommended to other law enforcement agencies to investigate attached crimes including sex offenses and drugs, weapons and sex trafficking.
The cases closed out during Operation We Will Find You were made up of 86 percent endangered runaways and nine percent family abductions.
About 62 percent of the missing children recovered were found within a week of being reported missing to the US Marshals.
‘The U.S. Marshals Service is fully committed to the important mission of protecting the American people, especially our most vulnerable population – our children,’ said Ronald Davis, Director of the Marshals Service.
The service highlighted a couple of specific areas where dozens of children were either recovered or located safe.
One of the highest profile busts included a couple that was on the Top 15 Most Wanted list who had fled to Mexico from Washington State who had taken their five children into hiding with them.
