NEW ORLEANS — Five missing teenage girls have been reunited with their families and 30 sex offenders are facing charges after the U.S. Marshals Service executed a monthslong sex trafficking sting in New Orleans.
Dubbed “Operation Boo Dat,” the sting took place from mid-October through mid-December and recovered five girls between the ages of 14 and 17 with the assistance of multiple Louisiana law enforcement agencies, according to a news release issued by the U.S. Marshals Service.
Of the 30 individuals arrested in the sting, 17 are suspected of violating their sex offender registration requirements, the service added.
One of the rescued teens was a 16-year-old girl described by authorities as a runaway who had been suspected of stealing a relative’s car and handgun. She was found at a New Orleans home, living with several adults, including a strip club dancer, KTVU reported.
A second recovery rescued a 14-year-old girl with possible “sex trafficking ties” who was in the company of a 15- and 17-year-old on the streets of New Orleans. The trio told authorities that they were stranded by adult males after one of the men’s cousins was shot, USA Today reported.
A third recovery found a 15-year-old runaway with “prior human sex trafficking issues” in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The child’s sex trafficker had recently been murdered, the newspaper reported.
The fourth and fifth recoveries rescued two sisters, ages 15 and 16, from a Baton Rouge apartment where they may have been “victims of adult(s) felony criminal sexual activities,” the agency added.
Individuals arrested included Lorenzo Oliver, whom authorities said had a felony warrant for allegedly raping a 12-year-old female in an abandoned New Orleans home. Oliver had previously been convicted of attempted forcible rape and sexual battery in 2015 for attempting to rape an adult female at a public Louisiana library in 2013, USA Today reported.
Oliver was one of three tier-three sex offenders arrested during the sting. The designation is the most serious classification and violators are required to register as sex offenders for life, the newspaper reported.
Other arrests included Lamonte Versill Morris, whom authorities said has a warrant in San Patricio County, Texas, for allegedly sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in June 2021, KTVU reported.
A 17-year-old female, “known to have prior ties to several female runaways from New Orleans as well as ties to organized gang activities,” was also arrested on a felony human trafficking warrant, the agency stated.
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