60 Children Rescued, Eight Arrested in Two-Week Crackdown
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier on Monday announced Operation Dragon Eye — a sweeping, two-week child trafficking operation that state officials are calling the largest of its kind in U.S. history.
The initiative led to the rescue of 60 children between the ages of 9 and 17, many of whom were victims of extreme violence and exploitation. Eight suspects now face charges including human trafficking, child endangerment, drug trafficking, and related felonies. In at least one case, bond was set at $250 million.
As Florida’s Voice reports:
Taylor Hatch, secretary for the Florida Department of Children and Families, said she was proud to work alongside its federal its state and its local partners to recover “vulnerable children,” and they will be mobilizing ongoing resources to “support their well being.”
Hatch said the DCF team “provided critical information, helped shape recovery protocols, deploy child protective investigators, criminal justice coordinators and human trafficking specialists to support this mission in real time to ensure that every child recovered was met with care and was met with compassion.”
Uthmeier was joined by other partners including Rita Peters, special counsel to the attorney general’s office, Mark Glass, commissioner of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Katherine Gomez, director at Florida Department of Juvenile Justice Human Trafficking Intervention, Callahan Walsh, executive director at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, Lee Bercaw, chief of the Tampa Police Department, Anthony Holloway, chief of the St. Petersburg Police Department, Tracey Kaly, director of operations for BayCare Behavioral Health and Natasha Nascimento, chief executive officer of Redefining Refuge.
Interagency Push Across State Lines
The operation brought together multiple state and federal agencies, including:
- Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF)
- Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE)
- U.S. Marshals Service
- Juvenile justice officials
DCF Secretary Hatch also underscored the state’s focus on trauma-informed recovery, noting that rescuing these children is only the beginning.
Parallel Operation Recovers 25 More Children in Northeast Florida
In tandem with Dragon Eye, the National Child Protection Task Force (NCPTF) led a three-day mission in Northeast Florida, dubbed a “targeted sweep.” That effort rescued 25 missing or endangered children aged 7 to 17 across six counties: Clay, Duval, St. Johns, Nassau, Putnam, and Flagler.
More than 30 agencies took part, supported by Operation Light Shine and the Tim Tebow Foundation. Authorities confirmed that new leads from the operation are helping develop ongoing investigations.
Florida’s Model: Tech-Driven, Results-Oriented
Together, the two operations recovered 85 children in less than a month — a number that dwarfs previous statewide or federal efforts. Officials attribute the scale and speed of these rescues to tighter data integration, real-time intelligence sharing, and stronger cross-agency collaboration.
Florida’s approach is being closely watched as a possible national template for how to tackle child exploitation networks in both urban and rural areas.
Next Steps: Transparency, Trials, and Accountability
While the rescue numbers are unprecedented, the real test will be what happens next. Advocates are urging full transparency on outcomes for the rescued children and steady updates on criminal prosecutions.
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Would love to know the ethnicity of kids and who and how kids were taken. Were they all illegals?
Thanks to all of these law enforcement agencies for this exceptional action.
Good job! We are so proud!
It’s about time they got off the ADULT DATING APPS and tried actually saving real children!!