A month-long, statewide enforcement effort in April 2025, dubbed “Operation Soteria Shield,” successfully rescued 109 children and led to the arrest of 244 offenders involved in online sexual exploitation. The collaborative operation was spearheaded by the North Texas Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force and FBI Dallas’s North Texas Child Exploitation Task Force, with joint management by the FBI Dallas Division, Dallas Police Department, Plano Police Department, Wylie Police Department, and Garland Police Department.
More than 70 Texas law enforcement agencies joined forces throughout April, dedicating highly skilled computer crimes investigators to identify victims and apprehend individuals engaged in the production, distribution, and possession of child sexual abuse material.
Beyond the arrests and rescues, investigators seized extensive volumes of digital evidence, including terabytes of illicit data from electronic devices used in the commission of these crimes. These devices are currently undergoing forensic analysis, which may lead to further arrests and the identification of additional victims…