The FBI Dallas led a coordinated child exploitation sting in April that led to the arrests of 244 people across Texas, including several suspects in Lubbock, the government revealed this week. Operation Soteria Shield, the study that lasted a month, also saved 109 children from being abused and exploited.
Over 70 police departments, including the Lubbock Police Department, the Dallas Police Department, the Plano Police Department, the Garland Police Department, and federal and state attorneys, collaborated on the large-scale operation. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children was also essential to the search.
“This operation was not easy, but it had to be done,” said R. Joseph Rothrock, special agent in charge of the FBI in Dallas. “We will keep protecting the kids in our communities and making child predators pay for their crimes.”…