Boston, MA – The United States Marshals Service District of Massachusetts and partner agencies at the Massachusetts State Police, Boston Police, and Essex, Plymouth, and Suffolk District Attorneys’ Offices announce the safe recovery of 35 endangered missing children from Massachusetts during “Operation Yellow Card,” a targeted, high-impact missing child operational initiative designed to locate and recover endangered youth within and from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts prior to and throughout the upcoming FIFA World Cup soccer tournament.
In anticipation of the influx of hundreds of thousands of international visitors and spectators to the Boston metropolitan area for the June-July 2026 games, law enforcement agencies have implemented proactive measures to identify and protect vulnerable missing children who have an elevated risk of human trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation.
Operation Yellow Card commenced its active phase in April 2026 and is slated to run through the conclusion of the tournament. Already, the operation has yielded the successful recovery of 35 vulnerable high risk missing children from Massachusetts from as far away as Georgia and Texas, and the children have been safely reunited with family members or placed with appropriate protective services. In addition, the operation has also generated multiple investigations involving allegations of criminal violations related to kidnapping, human trafficking, and other associated offenses…