The FBI arrested 205 sex predators, thereby rescuing 115 children, over the course of five days in a joint operation with the Department of Justice this month.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel announced the results of Operation Restore Justice on Wednesday, issuing a stern warning to child sex offenders who remain at large across the nation.
“We will find you. We will arrest you, and we will charge you,” Bondi said during an eight-minute press briefing. “If you are online targeting a child, you will not escape us. The FBI and the Department of Justice will come after you. And we will prosecute you.”
The arrested predators are accused of producing, distributing, and possessing child sexual abuse material; enticing and transporting minors; and trafficking children, according to a DOJ press release. Bondi assured the public that these criminals, if convicted, will face the maximum penalty, which in some cases would mean life in prison.
Among the suspects that Patel revealed included Minnesota state trooper Jeremy Francis Plonski, who faces a minimum of 15 years in prison for producing child pornography while on the job; former Metropolitan Police Department officer Linwood Barnhill, a registered sex offender who recruited children to engage in commercial sex acts and profited from said acts; and illegal Mexican immigrant Jose Alexis Valdez Sosa, who transported a minor across state borders for sex.
Each suspect was arrested in Minneapolis, Minn.; Washington, D.C.; and Norfolk, Va., respectively.
“These are just three examples that show you the extent and the depravity of these horrific crimes, and we need to team up together with the American public to find the rest,” Patel said.
The nationwide operation was led by 55 FBI field offices and U.S. attorney’s offices.
During the press conference, Bondi advised parents to keep an eye on their children’s online activities in order to prevent them from being targeted by sex offenders.
“Parents, you have to know this is so serious, your child has no right to privacy on the internet, none,” she said. “You have to monitor what your kids are doing, whether they’re playing games on the internet, on social media, any other websites that children and teenagers frequent, an online predator can find them.”
“I always say it’s from instant message to instant nightmare,” the DOJ chief added. “They’re predators. They pose as children. They get them sometimes to post explicit pictures of themselves after they talk to them, and then, in some cases, they even try to blackmail the children.”
Involved parents helped bring some of these predators to justice, the DOJ said. In one such case, a young victim told FBI agents about their abuse at the hands of a California man after hearing an online safety presentation near Albany, N.Y. The suspect was arrested around eight hours after the victim came forward.
“If you harm our children, you will be given no sanctuary. There is no place we will not come to hunt you down. There is no place we will not look for you. And there is no cage we will not put you in, should you do harm to our children,” Patel told active child predators.
“You will be hunted down, and you will be prosecuted.”