Operation “This Is The Way Home” recovers 19 missing children

New Orleans, Louisiana: Yesterday the U.S. Marshals Service announced the result of Operation "This Is The Way Home" which took place between March 1 and June 30, 2021.  During the operation 19 children were recovered and an additional 20 children were "located and/or self-returned during this operation."

"This was a joint operation with our local, state, and federal partners and teamwork and information sharing made these results possible," U.S. Marshal for the Eastern District of Louisiana Scott Illing stated. "I am extremely proud that the U.S. Marshals Service was tasked with the mission of locating missing and exploited children. While 19 recoveries may not seem high, this work, which is time consuming, was accomplished while also running our normal day-to-day violent felony offender investigations across 13 parishes. A sex offender fugitive operation (NO Saints and Sinners 2021) was also ongoing in the district at the same tim4e resulting in over 35 additional felony arrests, along with our other judicial missions. Out local, state, and federal partners embrace the opportunity to conduct such meaningful operations for the community, in addition to their more traditional law enforcement activities to combat the rise of violent crime."

As a result of the operation, "nine adults were arrested on charges including felony carnal knowledge of a juvenile and/or continubiting to the delinquency of a juvenile."

During the operation, an Amber Alert was issued out of Paragould, Arkansas for a male child, less than one month in age. The U.S. Marshals were able to recover the child safely in New Orleans.

Recoveries during the operation were made in/from the states of Florida, Arkansas, Texas and Tennessee.

The operation also saw law enforcement taking possession of $17,586 and seven firearms, one of which was stolen out of New Orleans. Additionally, narcotics including codeine, oxycodone and "other Schedule II narcotics, and Marijuana were seized."