20 endangered missing children rescued in Atlanta, most were sex trafficking victims

(The AEGIS Alliance) – 20 endangered missing kids have been rescued by the U.S. Marshals Service in Atlanta, Georgia, consisting of 16 that had been “suspected victims of sex trafficking.”

A news release coming from the U.S. Marshals Service said the rescuing of the youngsters had been part of the agency’s “Operation Not Forgotten 2021,” an operation that spanned for two weeks with the U.S. Marshals Service leading it in the city of Atlanta. The USMS’s Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force (SERFTF), the National Center for Missing as well as Exploited Children (NCMEC), and also Georgia state and local agencies additionally helped in the course of the operation.

“Of the 20 recovered, 16 of the children were suspected victims of sex trafficking,” the U.S. Marshals Service pointed out in the press release. “These missing children were considered to be some of the most at-risk and challenging recovery cases in the area, based on indications of high-risk factors such as victimization of child sex trafficking, child exploitation, sexual abuse, physical abuse, and medical or mental health conditions.”

The U.S. Marshals Service as well as the Danbury Police Department in Connecticut additionally apprehended a male suspect on Wednesday that was believed to have committed assault against an underage child. The male suspect has been identified as being age 35 Wayne Marcell who is charged with a first-degree sexual offense as well as the risk of injury to an underage child.

SERFTF inserted officials with the Georgia Attorney General’s Office along with the U.S. Marshals Service crews “to consider potential prosecutions as the marshals recovered children who were known or suspected victims of child sexual exploitation and child sex trafficking.”

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr responded to the 20 children being rescued and pointed out that, “Our Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit was proud to again partner with our local, state and federal partners on Operation Not Forgotten 2021, and we appreciate the U.S. Marshals Service Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force for coordinating this initiative.”

U.S. Marshals Missing Child Unit Chief Darby Kirby stated in the press release that “Everyone who participated in the op played a vital role in recovering these children.”

Kirby carried on and said, “I strongly believe this model is the most effective example of how we as an agency should be approaching this mission.”

The U.S. Marshals Service carried out a similar operation in August 2020, referred to by the agency as “Operation Not Forgotten.”

The U.S. Marshals Service had stated in a prior press release that “Operation Not Forgotten” resulted in the “rescue of 26 children, the safe location of 13 children, and the arrest of nine criminal associates.”

Kyle James Lee – The AEGIS Alliance – This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.