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FIRST ON FOX: A multi-agency effort in Florida has recovered 163 children–from 2 months old to 17– across five continents during Operation Statewide Shield, Attorney General James Uthmeier announced Tuesday.
Working with federal and foreign law enforcement agencies, Florida law enforcement officials spent five days in mid-August tracking and recovering the missing children.
Some of the children were runaways, Uthmeier’s office said. Some had been abandoned, neglected or abused. Some had been trafficked.
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“Many of these kids have been victimized by those who prey on the most vulnerable,” Uthmeier said.
The August mission was Florida’s first statewide child-recovery initiative and the largest operation of its kind in Florida history, according to Uthmeier’s office.
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Thanks to the work of the operation’s partners, he said, “these children are now safe and receiving the care they deserve.
“Florida will continue leading the recovery of missing children, hunting down every predator, and prosecuting abusers to the fullest extent of the law.”
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Rescuers recovered the children in Florida, Alabama, California, Ohio, New York, North Carolina, Puerto Rico, and Tennessee. They also found children in Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Dominica, Finland, Ghana, Guatemala, Italy, Jamaica, Mexico, Spain and Taiwan, Uthmeier’s office said.
Three men have been arrested so far, a spokesman for Uthmeier told Fox News Digital.
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Michael Prescott was arrested on Aug. 21 by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. He was charged with three counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a minor, one count of felony battery and one count of aggravated assault.
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Prescott already had an active warrant for interference with child custody, according to Uthmeier’s office.
Robert Ferral Allison was arrested on Aug. 20 by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office. He was charged with lewd and lascivious battery on a victim 12 to 16 years old.
Jayden Allen Harwood, according to Uthmeier’s office, was arrested on charges of interference in a child custody case and resisting officers without violence.
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“Many more investigations [have been] started,” a spokesman for Uthmeier’s office said. “More arrests are expected.”
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As the children were rescued, local law enforcement officers transported them to hubs, where they received support from social services workers, child welfare professionals, medical providers, victim advocates, and other child-centered agencies, according to Uthmeier’s office.
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Some of the children were reunited with their families, and some were taken into foster care, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office said.
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The recoveries allowed the children’s cases with the Missing and Endangered Persons Information Clearinghouse to be closed, Uthmeier said.
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The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) steered the operation using lessons learned from Operation Dragon Eye and Operation Home for the Holidays, carried out by the U.S. Marshals.
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Helping plan and execute the operation were: the Office of Statewide Prosecution, the Department of Children and Families (DCF), the Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ), Baycare, More to Life and the Florida Human Trafficking Victims Fund.
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Providing critical assistance were numerous municipal law enforcement agencies and federal partners, and 13 Florida sheriff’s offices including Manatee, Sarasota, Jacksonville, Clay, Nassau, Putnam, St. Johns, Flagler, Orange, Escambia, Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas, Uthmeier said.
