Leaders of the United States Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Agency said they arrested nearly 250 pedophiles between November and December of last year through what they call “Operation Sunflower.”
In 2011, the agency was able to capture a pedophile thanks to sunflower shaped roadsigns they identified in pictures the pedophile had posted online. That was the first case in their victim identification program.
In just five weeks, Operation Sunflower was underway. Agents were able to arrest 245 pedophiles and through the victim identification program, they now know 123 victims of child abuse. Forty four of those victims have already been rescued and 24 cases are so old, those victims are now adults. The rest of the cases are believed to have happened outside of the victims' homes.
Nearly 300 pedophiles were arrested from throughout the nation in 2012, but the agency said the number of arrests is far greater when factoring in the pedophiles arrested in other countries.
© Copyright 2013 WHSV / Gray Television Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.