Five Missing Underage Girls, Assault Victims Rescued By US Marshals

An annual multiagency effort related to ensuring the compliance of potential and registered sex offenders has led to over 30 arrests as well as the rescue of five missing teenagers who may have been used for nefarious sex-related purposes.

Operation Boo Dat, an annual effort of the U.S. Marshals Service in cooperation with the local Louisiana police forces, successfully rounded up 30 individuals for arrest between mid-October and Dec. 24 of this year, with over 17 of them for felony sex offender violations, CNN reported.

The operation also successfully rescued five missing teenage girls between the ages of 14 and 17, and led to the arrest of a previously-convicted rapist and sex offender who reportedly raped a 12-year-old child in an abandoned New Orleans home, according to the New York Post.

The five teenage girls rescued by the operation were believed to have been exploited in some sexual way or being groomed to do so. Among those found was a 16-year-old runaway who was found living with adults in a home in New Orleans.

Another case finds two sisters, aged 15 and 16, in Baton Rouge that were potential victims of sexual exploitation.

Finally, three girls between the ages of 14 and 17 were found in a motel in Baton Rouge with potential ties to local sex trafficking operations after adults males they may have been working for told them to stay put, a press release from the U.S. Marshals Office reported.

“During Operation Boo Dat over one hundred sex offender compliance checks were also attempted or completed in Orleans and Jefferson Parishes,” the U.S. Marshals said in a statement.

“Sex Offender compliance checks require law enforcement officers to go to the sex offender's reported address of residence to verify that the person still lives at the provided address. Often countless hours of follow-up investigative work are required during and after a compliance check.”