U.S. Marshals Recover 11 Children in New Orleans

The U.S. Marshals (USMS) on Wednesday announced the recovery of 11 children as part of a two-month rescue effort in New Orleans, Louisiana.

McClatchy News reported:

The probe, dubbed “Operation Summer Rescue 2020,” ran from Aug. 1 through Sept. 30 and focused on locating suspected runaways considered “missing or endangered.” The agency’s Missing Child Unit sponsored the operation.

Among those found were a 16-year-old boy allegedly involved in illegal gang activity in New Orleans, authorities said, and a 13-year-old girl located more than 500 miles away in Nashville, Tennessee, with the help of local police. […]

Marshal service deputies also arrested several suspects as part of the probe, the release says, including an adult male charged with aggravated statutory rape.

“This is a very important mission that the USMS has been tasked by Congress to oversee, as the safety of children across the country is paramount to this nation’s future,” U.S. Marshal Scott Illing said in a statement. “While 11 recoveries may not seem high, this work, which is time consuming, was accomplished while also running our normal day-to-day violent felony offender investigations and sex offender fugitive operations in the district, along with our other judicial missions.”

The announcement comes after the U.S. Marshals revealed in August that law enforcement recovered 39 minors as part of “Operation Not Forgotten,” the agency’s program focused on missing children. The two-week mission, undertaken in Georgia cities Atlanta and Macon, resulted in 26 children being rescued and 13 more safely located.

“I cannot say enough about Operation Not Forgotten and the men and women behind it,” Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr said of the mission at the time. “39 – That’s how many young lives are getting a new start, and that’s how we measure success.”

Roughly 200 children are currently listed as missing in Northeast Ohio and a law enforcement effort led by U.S. Marshals is in the process of attempting to rescue them. As of today, “Operation Safety Net” has recovered 25 missing children in the state.