The FBI and local Colorado law enforcement agencies recovered eight children and 19 adult victims of sex trafficking in July as part of Operation Cross Country, a yearly national crackdown, the FBI announced Wednesday.

“Human trafficking, and especially sex trafficking for children, is a persistent and particularly destructive threat that causes unthinkable harm to the most vulnerable members of our society,” said Mark Michalek, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Denver office, in a news conference Wednesday.

Victims found in this summer’s operation included a 16-year-old girl trafficked by her father in exchange for drugs. Another child was reported missing by her foster family and found in a hotel room with a “known” trafficker, according to a news release.

Operation Cross Country involves 89 task forces in the U.S., according to the release. A two-day crackdown in July as part of the operation in Colorado led to the arrest of five traffickers and identification of eight others for more investigation.

It involved more than 40 law enforcement agencies, human services departments, district attorneys’ offices and victims’ advocacy organizations.

FBI in Denver identifies nearly two dozen sex trafficking victims in Operation Cross Country

Trafficking victims don’t fit a single profile, officials said, but often they are in vulnerable positions that put them at risk for exploitation. That can include backgrounds poverty, unstable homes, substance addiction, having disabilities and identifying as LGBTQ+.

“The traffickers often find that providing drugs, food and shelter is an acceptable means to manipulate victims,” said Lt. Aaron Rebeterano, who supervises the Denver Police Department’s human trafficking unit. “Many of the traffickers utilize their victims’ addictions, lack of resources (and) physical and emotional abuse to maintain control.”

He added traffickers also don’t fit one profile. They often are gang members or low-level drug dealers, but trafficking also happens in residential brothels and massage parlors.

Law enforcement agencies work with non-government organizations and human services departments that provide services and advocacy for victims. Anne Darr, a victim specialist for the FBI, said the partnerships especially matter for instances when victims don’t want to talk to law enforcement officers initially. She said victims may fear getting themselves or their traffickers – whom they often have a trauma bond with – into trouble.

“They may not be ready to be able to talk about their experience. And so that’s where it’s incumbent upon me to make sure that we’re connecting them with service providers in the community,” Darr said.

She said asking victims basic questions about their situations, such as when they last slept, ate or had contact with family, helps assess their immediate needs, but also can help open the door to talking about what has happened to them.

Officials emphasized arrests of traffickers or getting victims out of their situations mark only the beginning of the victims’ recovery.

The FBI currently has more than 1,600 pending human trafficking investigations and opened 668 in the 2022 fiscal year, Michalek said.

“I think the takeaway is that it’s here,” he said. “They are hiding in plain sight.”