Marietta, Cobb Police Nab Alleged Sex Traffickers

Cobb County and Marietta police have arrested a pair of alleged sex traffickers during a nationwide campaign led by the FBI to arrest suspects and free victims of underage sex trafficking, the bureau announced Tuesday.

According to the FBI, 149 underage trafficking victims were recovered and 153 pimps were arrested in a nationwide human trafficking operation conducted throughout the United States last week. The initiative, dubbed Operation Cross Country IX, is a national effort spearheaded by the FBI and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, along with state and local law enforcement partners across the country. The initiative, now in its ninth year, targets the criminal enterprises responsible for the commercial sex trafficking of children.

The youngest victim recovered during the operation was 12 years old, the bureau said Tuesday. Three of the recovered victims were transgender individuals. During the operation, 90 victim specialists provided on-scene direct services to the victims of sex trafficking while 105 child victims received on-site direct services which may have included crisis intervention and resources for basic needs like medical, food, clothing and shelter.

Law enforcement agencies in Georgia freed seven victims and made nine arrests on pimping charges, the bureau said. Latoya Tamara Taylor, age 33, of Cleveland, OH was arrested by Cobb County Police and Sharnece Joyner, age 24 was arrested by Marietta Police.

“Human trafficking is a monstrous and devastating crime that steals lives and degrades our nation,” said Attorney General Loretta Lynch in a statement. “As a result of the FBI’s outstanding coordination and exemplary efforts alongside state and local partners during Operation Cross Country, more children will sleep safely tonight, and more wrongdoers will face the judgment of our criminal justice system. The Department of Justice will continue to aggressively and persistently fight this heinous crime, and to hold its perpetrators accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”

Operation Cross Country is part of the FBI’s Innocence Lost national initiative, which began in 2003. Since the program’s inception, more than 4,800 children have been recovered from underage prostitution and prosecutors have obtained more than 2,000 convictions, including at least 15 that have resulted in life sentences.