FBI Rescues 105 Kids from Child-Sex Trafficking Trade Johnny Gosch's Mom Warned About

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The FBI said Monday that it had rescued 105 child sex-trafficking victims held in a trade similar to one described by Noreen Gosch, the mom of missing West Des Moines paperboy Johnny Gosch, who never came home from his paper route in 1982.

More than 150 pimps have been arrested in the FBI’s Innocence Lost National Initiative, CBS News reported.

The three-day nationwide sweep was a joint operation between the National Center for Missing Children – an organization Noreen Gosch helped establish – and law enforcement agencies from 76  cities. The raid was the seventh, and the largest to date, similar action taken under “Operation Cross Country” to date and, the network said.

“Child prostitution remains a persistent threat to children across America,” Ron Hosko, assistant director of the FBI’s  Criminal Investigative Division, said in a press release. “This operation serves as a reminder that these abhorrent crimes can happen anywhere and that the FBI remains committed to stopping this cycle of victimization and holding the criminals who profit from this exploitation acocuntable.”

In Iowa 30 years ago, Noreen Gosch said investigators she hired uncovered a child prostitution ring that likely kidnapped Johnny Gosch, but said law enforcement authorities never acted on the tips.

Read Noreen Gosch’s story in Iowa’s Missing Kids: Innocence Abducted, a special reporting project by the Iowa Patch team:

• 30 Years After Johnny Gosch Vanished, Iowa’s Innocence Abducted: Part 1 in a Series
• Innocence Abdcuted: Noreen Gosch Blinded by Ugly World of Child Sex Trade: Part 2 in a Series
• Johnny Gosch’s Mom a ‘Pioneer’ in Protecting Children: Part 3 in a Series