Prostitution sting nets 35 arrests, 2 kids

By Megan Matteucci

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The FBI said they rescued two child prostitutes and arrested 35 people in the Atlanta metro area as part of a national underage sex sting.

Law enforcement across the nation spent the past three days combing Websites, truck stops and casinos for child predators, the FBI said.

The sting netted more than 700 arrests, including 35 suspects in the Atlanta area, said Special Agent Jason Pack, a spokesman for the FBI in Washington, D.C.

Officers sent six suspected pimps, three johns and 26 prostitution suspects to Atlanta area jails, Pack said Monday. They also recovered two juveniles, he said.

The arrests were part of Operation Cross Country IV, a national sting targeting child prostitution.

“Child prostitution continues to be a significant problem in our country, as evidenced by the number of children rescued through the continued efforts of our crimes against children task forces," FBI Criminal Investigations Division Assistant Director Kevin Perkins said in a statement.

The FBI has recovered about 900 children from the streets since it started its Lost Innocence Task Force in 2003, according to Perkins.

Atlanta FBI agents also arrested a Knoxville man in north Georgia after he attempted to solicit a minor for sex, according to the FBI.

Timothy Grube, 27, traveled from his Knoxville home to Catoosa County on Sunday to meet what he thought was a child after talking to the person online, the FBI said. Instead, he met agents with the FBI’s Northwest Georgia Crimes Against Children Task Force.

Grube is now being held in the Catoosa County jail on charges of computer pornography and child exploitation, Catoosa Sheriff Phil Summers said Monday.