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Field Operations
In March of 2026, investigators with CiberPOL, part of the Ecuadorian National Police, followed a CyberTip submitted to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and traced it to a location south of the city. Someone was distributing child sexual abuse material (CSAM), meaning children were in need of help. Working quickly, with support from Our Rescue, investigators built a careful case in…
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Field Operations
In Latin America, law enforcement continues to confront the growing spread of child sexual abuse material (CSAM). These horrific cases often begin with a tip online and lead police to discover real sexual abuse involving children. A recent series of four “Operation Guardian” cases, supported by Our Rescue in Ecuador and Chile, highlight how coordinated investigations, digital intelligence, and in-country support are essential in helping…
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Field Operations
In just two days, Ecuadorian National Police (ENP), their Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (UNAT), the Attorney General’s Office (FGE), and members of Our Rescue’s team in Latin America came together to rescue two teenaged girls, ages 14 and 17, from a life of sexual exploitation. Embroiled in extremely dangerous gang activity, caught between a notorious Transnational Criminal Organization (TCO) and local rival gangs,…
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Field Operations
Every day, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) receives thousands of CyberTipline reports that require urgent review because they may involve children in immediate danger. In 2024 alone, staff identified and escalated more than 51,000 reports as urgent or involving imminent risk and…
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Field Operations
In Ecuador, two 7-year-old girls were allegedly being sexually exploited by their father. In February of 2026, investigators from the Ecuadorian National Police (ENP) Anti-Trafficking Unit (UNAT) discovered child sexual abuse material (CSAM) featuring the two children in sexually explicit photographs that were being distributed to a social media group. Working alongside the Attorney General’s Office (FGE) and with the support of Our Rescue, ENP UNAT initiated a search and arrest warrant at…
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Field Operations
In Ecuador, a 12-year-old child was living under a lie facing sexual exploitation. An adult had convinced the child that he was family and someone they could trust, someone who had authority in their life. He then used that false identity to gain control and sexually exploit, creating a reality that no child should ever have to navigate. But investigators with…
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Field Operations
She was only 17 years old, and she was being sold online for sex. In September, the Peruvian National Police received a tip that someone was allegedly advertising the sexual services of minors, girls between the ages of 14 and 17, through a website and across social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp,…
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Field Operations
Within 48 hours, Our Rescue’s collaboration with the Ecuadorian National Police (ENP) Anti-Trafficking Unit (UNAT) and the Attorney General’s Office (FGE) in Ecuador resulted in the arrest of 4 individuals suspected of sexually exploiting children. Today, 4 children are now safe from sexual abuse. In August of 2025, teams came together in Guayaquil to respond to the exploitation of a 14-year-old girl. Investigators…
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Field Operations
In the Huaycán district of Lima, Peru, one child, the niece of an adult male predator, was being sexually abused and exploited behind closed doors. In the city of Huancayo, based in the Junin region, miles away, another two minor-age children, family cousins to that same perpetrator, lived separate lives but faced the same abuse at the hands of the same man. Peruvian investigators would soon connect both. In late 2025, multiple CyberTipline reports submitted by Google through the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children…
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Field Operations
In Chile, a 34-year-old security guard was suspected of using online spaces to target and exploit children, leveraging access to social media to harass and coerce minors into producing child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Following the discovery of these alleged crimes, Chile’s Investigative Police (Policía de Investigaciones de Chile, PDI) launched Operation Mantarraya with support from Our Rescue to identify and apprehend the…
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Field Operations
In Chile, a nine-year-old girl was identified in child sexual abuse material (CSAM) files during a police investigation, setting in motion a coordinated police response in Santiago’s Metropolitan Region to rescue her. On November 2025, the Chilean Investigative Police (PDI) launched Operation Hope with coordinated support from the Our Rescue…
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Field Operations
Before dawn in southern Lima, coordinated teams moved quietly through the districts. Buses carrying dozens of Peruvian National Police officers arrived at their staging points for a critical operation, with logistical support provided by Our Rescue. What unfolded over the next several hours would interrupt an ongoing exploitation scheme linked to a local hotel—one in…
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Field Operations
A Peruvian male was allegedly creating and sharing child sexual abuse material (CSAM) across multiple social media platforms. As authorities began examining the activity linked to these online accounts, investigators identified the individual behind the content. What they uncovered next suggested that the sexual exploitation was not just limited to the digital environment, but it was happening inside the suspect’s own home. Investigators determined that three children…
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Field Operations
In Ecuador, a 16-year-old Venezuelan minor was allegedly being sex trafficked and exploited. The case began when local authorities received a troubling missing minor report and possible child exploitation through the 911 call center in Guayaquil. That urgent reality set a multi-agency response into motion on October 25. The Our Rescue team in Ecuador supported Operation CODIGO RESCATE 318 alongside the Ecuadorian National Police (ENP) Anti-Trafficking Unit (UNAT) and…
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Asia
Operation Global Impact (OGI) 2025 was a groundbreaking international effort, bringing together law enforcement agencies and Our Rescue teams across three regions to tackle sex trafficking and child exploitation. In October, the operation concluded, and the final numbers are now in: 338 survivors rescued, including 74 children 243 individuals arrested,…
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Field Operations
Operation Global Impact 2025 (OGI) Update from Latin America Operation Global Impact 2025 has been a tremendous success in Latin America, with 84 arrests and 48 minors rescued in less than three months. Our teams on the ground continue working tirelessly to put your donations to work in the field—supporting…
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Field Operations
In Ecuador, a 17-year-old girl was missing from her hometown after she was falsely promised a job by suspicious men. What seemed like an opportunity quickly became a trap, and she was forced into sexual exploitation. Her case sparked an investigation that would lead to the rescue of two teenage…
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Organization
This fall, Our Rescue is launching Operation Global Impact 2025, a coordinated international surge operation across 10 countries in Latin America, Europe, and Asia. We expect multiple operations with police partners in the coming weeks to identify and rescue survivors of sex trafficking and child exploitation, helping…
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Field Operations
He promised children free video games. What they got instead was exploitation. In Ecuador, a 24-year-old man, barely three weeks into a prison sentence for gender-based violence, is the alleged suspect in a disturbing case of child sexual exploitation that investigators say began in a neighborhood cyber café and continued…
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Field Operations
In Panama, two men were smuggling nine Iranian women from Panama City to the Costa Rican border. However, instead of safely transporting the women, the men forced them into sexual exploitation, telling them it was to pay for their transportation costs, trapping them in a nightmare far from home. The…
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Human Trafficking
Claiming to be a shaman in Ecuador, a Peruvian national named Luzgardo M. used spiritual rituals as a cover to secretly exploit children. Investigators discovered that he was filming minors during these so-called ceremonies, actively producing child sexual abuse material (CSAM) under the guise of spiritual practices. In July of 2025,…
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Field Operations
In one of Ecuador’s most volatile urban zones, where the threat of organized crime looms heavy and law enforcement presence is often met with resistance, a joint operation was quietly set in motion. It was the culmination of a six-month investigation, one that would lead police deep into Monte Sinai,…
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Field Operations
A young Panamanian woman, lured with false promises of work, was trafficked to Spain and forced into sexual exploitation. Criminal elements in Colombia, Spain, and Panama were working together to recruit and transport women for this purpose, and she fell prey to their international network. Her freedom stripped, her documents…
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Survivor Care
This time of year, most kids are enjoying fun days with friends and family. But for an eight-year-old girl in Lima, Peru, the month of June included being tested for HIV, after she survived the horrors of sexual abuse and having it recorded and distributed on the internet as child…
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Policy & Legal Advocacy
Two young Colombian women, ages 21 and 22, thought they were leaving home for stable jobs in a textile factory in Peru. But instead of opportunity, they walked into the hands of a violent trafficking network. As soon as they arrived in Lima, their documents were taken, their physical appearances…
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Field Operations
6-year-old girl and 8-year-old brother rescued, half-brother arrested At the beginning of the year, Ecuadorian authorities were handed a disturbing lead: a thumb drive found abandoned on a bus near the Amazon region, which contained child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The team urgently needed to locate the survivors and put…
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Field Operations
After three years of sexual abuse, a twelve-year-old Peruvian boy had completely withdrawn from his regular routine. Sinking into a deep depression, he rarely left the house and stopped attending school. The perpetrator? A twenty-seven-year-old man who had befriended the boys’ family after he began working construction in the rural…
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Field Operations
It wasn’t long after a fourteen-year-old Peruvian girl didn’t return home from the market that her family’s fears were confirmed: she had been kidnapped and trafficked. The Peruvian National Police began an investigation and identified her trafficker as a Peruvian national with a history of sexually abusing children. The abuser…
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Field Operations
During a string of recent successful operations in Ecuador to arrest perpetrators of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), one of the most important partners was on scene to help secure justice. Along with provincial and national police, the State Attorney General and even U.S. Homeland Security Investigations, specially trained Our…
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Field Operations
A man in Latin America was wanted on charges of rape of minors and the production of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) since 2014. The suspected pedophile worked as a children’s music teacher, taking advantage of his trusted position with students to sexually exploit them. Despite his crimes and the…
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Field Operations
70 survivors identified and 7 suspects arrested in collaborative operation The Peruvian town of Llacuabamba, nestled in the rugged Andean mountains, is far from any typical tourist route. Located a grueling 15-hour drive from the coastal city of Trujillo, it is separated by miles of barren terrain and challenging mountain…
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Field Operations
In January 2024, a desperate father pleaded with authorities in Peru to help him find and rescue his 17-year-old daughter, who had been kidnapped by a Venezuelan Transnational Criminal Organization (TCO) and trafficked to a southern Peruvian coastal town for sexual exploitation. To help with this lifesaving mission, the Peruvian…
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Field Operations
This month, the DIJ Judicial Police Sexual Crimes Unit in Panama, supported by the Our Rescue team, successfully apprehended an adult male suspect for the sexual exploitation of a minor. The suspect, a cousin of the minor, had been allegedly abusing the fifteen-year-old girl for a period of two months.
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Survivor Care
Alejandro is a 12-year-old boy in Latin America who was born with a severe disability and epilepsy, facing unimaginable challenges from the start. His condition from birth left him with limited mobility, and his early years were marked by both physical and emotional abuse. Devastatingly, Alejandro was also trafficked, which…
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Our Perspectives
Sex trafficking is a worldwide crime against women and children. Predators often form sophisticated networks to transport unsuspecting victims across international borders and then trap them in a life of sexual servitude. Stopping these sex traffickers requires a coalition of organizations from different countries working together. That’s where Our Rescue…
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Field Operations
In the Caribbean, a sex trafficking investigation began after the Dominican Consulate received details that a woman was allegedly being held against her will and sex trafficked at an apartment by a known sex trafficking ring. AMERIPOL Colombia and the Dominican National Police (DNP) then got involved. At the request…
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Field Operations
A South American man allegedly produced and distributed child sexual abuse material (CSAM) of a 14-year-old. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children CyberTipline was the first to hear of this potential crime. With it being within their jurisdiction, the Ecuadorian National Police (ENP) got involved. Unidad Contra La…
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Field Operations
In a tribe in the Amazon rainforest, a father and two uncles were allegedly sexually abusing six children. The Ecuadorian National Police (ENP) found out about the possible crimes in March 2024 when the children’s mother came forward to authorities. The ENP’s human trafficking unit then planned a rescue operation.
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Field Operations
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Utah-based OUR Rescue provided critical training, cyber tools, and K9 support to aid in arrest Quito, Ecuador – July 12, 2024 – On July 10, in partnership with teams from OUR Rescue and U.S. law enforcement, Ecuadorian authorities successfully apprehended a well-known pediatrician on charges of…
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Field Operations
In Peru, it has been reported that two men worked together to create and distribute Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) of boys between 8-10 years old. One of the suspects operated an internet center on the first floor of his home. With video games available to be played, this gave…
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Prevention & Awareness
Human traffickers sometimes mark their victims with physical markings. These are often tattoos but can appear in various ways on the bodies of victims.
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Getting it Right
In 2014, O.U.R. conducted its biggest rescue operation to date. It was called Operation Triple Take, with three operations in three different Colombian cities to rescue victims of sex trafficking.
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Survivor Care
“Hailey,” age 9, was swimming in her local community pool down the street from her home in South America when her neighbor, an adult male, approached her.