More than 609 people were arrested by authorities on state and local charges after FBI’s three-day operation against child prostitution.

Authorities were able to recover 52 children and arrest 60 “pimps.”

Assistant director of the FBI‘s Criminal Investigative Division, Kevin Perkins, said in a statement, “Child prostitution continues to be a significant problem in our country, as evidenced by the number of children rescued through the continued efforts of our crimes against children task forces.”

Called Operation Cross Country IV, the operation covers about 36 cities across 30 FBI divisions nationwide. This project is related to the FBI initiative launched in 2003 dubbed the Innocence Lost National Initiative, which aimed to fight sex trafficking of children in the US.

The Innocence Lost National Initiative is conducted with the assistance of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. As of present, they have rescued almost 900 children.

(via CNN)