LOST GIRLS FOUND

Discovered in sex-criminal roundup

A law-enforcement operation in the New Orleans area has led to the discovery of five missing teenagers and resulted in 30 sex-offender arrests, authorities announced.

All five of the kids are girls from 14 through 17, according to the US Marshal’s Service, which led the annual multiagency initiative, dubbed Operation Boo Dat, between mid-October and Dec. 24.

Seventeen of the arrests were of people accused of felony sex-offender-registration violations.

The service said that one of the arrests was of a man wanted in the rape of a 12-year-old girl in an abandoned home on the West Bank of New Orleans. That person has also been convicted of attempting to rape a woman in a public library bathroom.

One girl a runaway

Another man was arrested in an alleged sexual assault of a 14-yearold girl in June in San Patricio County, Texas, according to the marshals.

One of the girls was a 16-year-old who ran away from her home in the Marrero section of New Orleans by allegedly stealing a relative’s car and a handgun, according to the service.

That girl was found in a home with “multiple adults including a strip club dancer,” the service said.

Two other missing girls were 15and 16-year-old sisters who were found in an apartment in Baton Rouge, La., and “may be victims of adult(s) felony criminal sexual activities,” according to the marshals.

At least two of the girls are believed to have “possible sex trafficking ties.”

“During Operation Boo Dat, over one-hundred sex-offender compliance checks were also attempted or completed in Orleans and Jefferson Parishes,” said the service.

“Sex-offender compliance checks require law-enforcement officers to go to the sex offender’s reported address of residence to verify that the person still lives at the provided address. Often countless hours of follow up investigative work are required during and after a compliance check.”

The service said the operation was carried out by its New Orleans Task Force, the New Orleans Police Department, the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office and the State Police.