Southwest
More than 30 children rescued amid trafficking operation in major US city as expert warns of growing crisis
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Federal and local authorities rescued more than 30 missing children and uncovered multiple trafficking operations targeting vulnerable youth during a coordinated crackdown across Texas.
The effort, centered in San Antonio, led to arrests, felony warrants and several new investigations under a joint mission known as “Operation Lightning Bug.”
Teams from the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) out of San Antonio, Del Rio, Midland, and Pecos joined forces with San Antonio Police Department’s Missing Persons Unit, Special Victims Unit, Street Crimes Unit and covert operatives. Together, they combed through Texas and national crime databases to identify at-risk juveniles and coordinate recovery efforts.
More than 30 children were rescued in the San Antonio area. (Loop Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
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The results included:
- Three arrests for harboring runaways
- Nine felony warrants executed
- Six sex trafficking survivors rescued and connected with support services
- Five new trafficking investigations opened
- More than 30 missing juveniles located
- More than 120 additional juveniles voluntarily returned home, clearing their names from missing persons databases
Each recovered child was interviewed by SAPD’s Special Victims Unit to determine whether they had been victimized. Survivors were referred to support services provided by agencies such as Health and Human Services to ensure long-term care and protection.
U.S. Marshal Susan Pamerleau, for the Western District of Texas, said in a statement that protecting children remains central to the Marshals Service’s mission.
“The safety of our children is the safety of our communities, and justice demands that we protect those who cannot protect themselves,” Pamerleau said. “Through Operation Lightning Bug, we reaffirm our promise to safeguard the most vulnerable and strengthen the safety of our communities.”
The U.S. Marshals Service and local law enforcement have been cracking down on trafficking operations. (U.S. Marshals Service, Bennie J. Davis III)
San Antonio Police Chief William McManus echoed those sentiments, praising the effort as an example of law enforcement unity.
“Every suspect arrested, juvenile returned home and survivor taken out of harm’s way matters,” McManus said. “This operation demonstrates what can be achieved when law enforcement agencies unite to protect children.”
The U.S. Marshals conducted the sweep under the authority of the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015, which empowers the agency to recover missing or endangered children, even when no fugitive is involved. That law also led to the creation of the USMS Missing Child Unit, which leads similar recovery efforts nationwide.
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The U.S. Marshals Service said protecting children remains central to its mission. (U.S. Marshals Service)
Kirsta Leeberg-Melton, founder and CEO of the Institute to Combat Trafficking, said operations like this one underscore the larger issue of exploitation in Texas and beyond.
“Trafficking is something that the city of San Antonio and the state of Texas and the nation have been grappling with for a considerable period of time,” she said in an interview with Fox News Digital.
She said traffickers often target instability — children without consistent housing, food or family support.
“They are easy pickings for traffickers to take advantage of,” she warned. “They exploit these needs by offering those items and then calling in debts and putting those kids in a position where they are able to exploit them for sex or for labor.”
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Leeberg-Melton said the public often underestimates how widespread trafficking is — and how much it has evolved, especially online.
“Trafficking is the exploitation of men, women and children for forced sex or forced labor by a third party for their profit or gain. That’s been around forever,” Leeberg-Melton said. “What hasn’t really been around is people’s understanding of that crime and their knowledge that it’s happening everywhere!”
She added that traffickers increasingly use technology to recruit and control victims.
“As technology advances, traffickers…are early adopters and adapters of technology,” she said. “The internet allows them to connect with victims and buyers far beyond their local area.”
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Traffickers are increasingly using technology to prey on victims, Kirsta Leeberg-Melton said. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
Leeberg-Melton emphasized that trafficking is not limited to border regions.
“American citizens can traffic American citizens on American soil,” she said, adding that most trafficking cases prosecuted in the U.S. involve American perpetrators exploiting American victims.
“The biggest myth is that it happens somewhere else, and it happens to someone else,” she said. “Until we start recognizing that people have value, no matter who they are, where they come from, what they’ve done or what’s been done to them, we will continue to excuse some level of exploitation.”
Leeberg-Melton also described sextortion as a growing form of trafficking that uses coercion to force sexual conduct or imagery.
“When you have someone that you are holding something over their head and then you are asking them for additional photographs or additional sexual conduct with the threat…that is a form, frankly, of human trafficking,” she said.
If you suspect someone is a victim of trafficking, contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888 or report anonymously at humantraffickinghotline.org.
Stepheny Price covers crime, including missing persons, homicides and migrant crime. Send story tips to stepheny.price@fox.com.
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Southern California is enjoying a comfortable stretch of below-average temperatures that should continue through Father’s Day, but a strong heat wave is looming.
A significant warming trend will begin early next week before peaking Wednesday and Thursday, according to the National Weather Service.
“Another one of those ridges of high pressure is expected to build in, with temperatures really heating up,” KTLA’s Kirk Hawkins said. “We’re looking at temperatures reaching triple digits in parts of the High Desert and Inland Empire as well.”
An extreme heat watch has been issued for parts of Los Angeles County, including Woodland Hills, Pomona, Pasadena, Santa Clarita and other areas, from Tuesday morning through Thursday evening.
Temperatures in those areas could range from the upper 80s to 100 degrees.
The Weather Service suggested the following actions:
- Continue to monitor the latest forecasts, as the amount of heating is still uncertain
- Adjust plans now to stay cool next week
- Check in with elderly neighbors and family members to ensure they are aware of the hot forecast
The high-pressure system is expected to weaken on Thursday, bringing cooler temperatures as we head into next weekend.
A 48-year-old man who led law enforcement on a dangerous pursuit lasting more than an hour is in custody in connection with the shooting deaths of a man and a woman at an upscale Pomona apartment complex Thursday, police announced.
Officers with the Pomona Police Department responded to the Monterey Station Apartments, located at 180 E. Monterey Ave., near North Garey Avenue, just before 3:30 p.m. on reports of a shooting, according to a department news release.
Police, along with responding Los Angeles County firefighters, found the two victims in a fourth-floor apartment.
Paramedics immediately began life-saving measures, but both victims were ultimately declared dead at the scene, investigators said.
Neighbors told KTLA’s Mary Beth McDade that the suspected shooter, Robert Galtman of Pomona, shot his girlfriend and another resident of the apartment complex.
“He shot the girl, that was the girlfriend,” one woman, a resident of the building who did not want to give her name, told KTLA. “I know them because he had tried to hit on me and told me the situation that she was beating him up and that she cheated on him with this guy, the one that was killed.”
Authorities were searching Galtman, who was believed to be in dark-colored sedan that fled the apartments northbound on Towne Avenue near Holt Avenue.
Just before 5 p.m., officers with the California Highway Patrol spotted his vehicle traveling northbound on the 5 Freeway, officials confirmed to KTLA. When officers attempted a traffic stop, he failed to yield and led authorities on a high-speed pursuit that lasted more than an hour.
During the pursuit, he made a U-turn on the freeway and headed southbound before exiting in Castaic and taking Lake Hughes Road through the hills toward the Antelope Valley.
Sky5 was over the dangerous chase as Galtman was seen tossing unknown items from the vehicle, including some type of liquid, swerving dangerously onto the shoulder and refusing to stop as at least four CHP units followed closely behind.
He initially dodged several spike strips deployed by officers, at one point driving on the shoulder in Lancaster before clipping one of the strips with the vehicle’s left side, causing both tires to deflate.
Still refusing to stop, Galtman continued at about 30 mph until a CHP officer accelerated and performed a PIT maneuver that spun the vehicle and disabled it.
He was quickly surrounded by officers with guns drawn but did not immediately comply.
Following law enforcement commands, Galtman exited the vehicle, surrendered and was taken into custody.
The identities of the two victims are being withheld pending notification of next of kin.
Authorities have not released a motive in the deadly shooting. The investigation is ongoing, and anyone with information is asked to contact the Pomona Police Department’s Detective Bureau at 909-620-2085.
A stand-up comedian is set to face criminal charges in the first case filed by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s newly created Business Tax Fraud Unit, officials announced Thursday.
According to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, the defendant is comedian and actor Carlos Mencia. District Attorney Nathan Hochman is scheduled to announce the charges during a 2 p.m. news conference at the Hall of Justice in downtown Los Angeles.
Officials have not yet disclosed the nature of the charges.
The prosecution marks the first case brought by the Business Tax Fraud Unit, a specialized division created under Hochman’s administration to investigate and prosecute tax-related crimes involving businesses.
Mencia, whose real name is Ned Arnel Mencia, rose to fame through his stand-up comedy career and as the host of the Comedy Central series Mind of Mencia.
The comedian has previously faced tax-related issues. In 2021, reports indicated that the Internal Revenue Service filed liens against three properties he owned in Georgia over more than $1 million in unpaid federal income taxes.
The District Attorney’s Office said Thursday’s announcement will be streamed live on its social media platforms.
No additional information about the case was immediately available Thursday morning.
KTLA will update this story following the district attorney’s announcement.
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