More than 200 alleged child sex predators have been arrested in the past week under a new joint operation, Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel announced on Wednesday.
The 205 arrests, made as part of “Operation Restore Justice,” saw 115 children rescued across the US as part of the “historic” and “unprecedented” joint Justice Department and FBI operation, Bondi and Patel said.
Some of the suspects charged include an illegal immigrant from Mexico, a Minnesota state trooper, and a DC police officer, according to Patel.
State trooper Jeremy Francis Plonski faces a mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison after he was arrested for producing child sexual abuse material while in uniform, Patel said.
Former Metropolitan Police Department Officer Linwood Barnhill, a convicted sex offender, is accused of exploiting more victims, including children, while on supervised release, he added.
Barnhill allegedly recruited children to engage in commercial sex acts, which he profited from financially, according to a complaint.
“These depraved human beings, if convicted, will face the maximum penalty in prison, some life,” Bondi said at a press briefing.
“We will find you. We will arrest you, and we will charge you. If you are online targeting a child, you will not escape us. The FBI and the Department of Justice will come after you. And we will prosecute you.”
Federal agents from 55 field offices were involved in the operation, Patel said.
“Their work undoubtedly saved lives and protected vulnerable kids from further horrific crimes,” he wrote on X.
“Operation Restore Justice is a powerful message: If you harm children in America, you will be given no sanctuary. There is nowhere you can hide.”
Bondi also shared a warning for parents on keeping their children safe from online predators.
“Parents, you have to know this is so serious, your child has no right to privacy on the internet, none,” she said. “You have to monitor what your kids are doing, whether they’re playing games on the internet, on social media, any other websites that children and teenagers frequent, an online predator can find them.”
She added, “I always say it’s from instant message to instant nightmare. They’re predators. They pose as children. They get them sometimes to post explicit pictures of themselves after they talk to them, and then, in some cases, they even try to blackmail the children.”
