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Inside the FBI highlights news, cases, and people from around the Bureau—in audio form. For more information, visit fbi.gov.
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Narrator: During the month of April, the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice undertook a nationwide crackdown to get individuals suspected of sexually exploiting children off the street and to rescue their young victims.
This effort, dubbed Operation Iron Pursuit, culminated in the arrest of over 350 subjects and the location of more than 200 child victims.
On this episode of our podcast, we'll share the story behind this operational sprint, discuss why partnerships are critical in the fight to protect America’s children, and explain how you can report known or suspected child abuse or exploitation to the Bureau.
This is Inside the FBI.
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Section Chief Dan Costin: Iron Pursuit is a national, FBI-led law enforcement action that targeted child exploitation predators.
Narrator: That’s Dan Costin. He’s an FBI section chief who leads the Bureau's efforts to investigate crimes against children and human trafficking.
Costin: The goal was to arrest as many as we could within this operation and to [identify] and locate child sexual exploitation victims.
It's a sprint in the sense that we are collecting and coalescing these operations into a package. But our investigators are out there operating at this tempo regularly. They're out there finding these subjects and helping these children every day.
Narrator: Iron Pursuit follows in the footsteps of three similar efforts conducted in the past year: Operation Restore Justice, which was carried out in April 2025; Operation Enduring Justice, from August 2025, and Operation Relentless Justice, which wrapped up in December.
Costin: We called it Iron Pursuit to show the unyielding, unbending focus that we have on this effort. We really want that message to go out that we're not going to slow down. We're not going to stop. We're going to continue pressing on and looking to identify and locate would-be perpetrators of this really heinous violation.
Narrator: The operation’s extended timeline—two weeks longer than the two most recent Bureau-wide sprints—gave field offices added flexibility in determining their individual approaches to fighting child sexual exploitation in their communities.
Costin: So, some of them set up undercover operations where they would begin chats with these perpetrators and try to essentially lure them in, in thinking they're going to exploit a child. And, lo and behold, they're meeting law enforcement officers.
Others have received tips from the public or from NCMEC—
Narrator: That’s the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children—
Costin: —and really kind of operated and began these investigations based off of leads that we received.
Here at Headquarters, our role is primarily to support the field, to position them where they can have the best cases, the best prosecutions, and get the support they need from us here in D.C. We provide funding for travel, for equipment. But really, it's to help them execute the mission.
Narrator: In the context of Operation Iron Pursuit, he said, the Criminal Division really let the field drive the effort’s execution.
Costin: They’re going to know their AORs [areas of responsibility]. They’re going to know their subjects much better than we do here at Headquarters, so we allowed them to set their priorities.
Narrator: For example, the FBI’s Philadelphia Field Office targeted producers of child sexual abuse material and individuals who were traveling into the field office’s area of responsibility to sexually exploit children. As Supervisory Special Agent Glenn Booth, who leads the Philadelphia Division’s violent crimes against children and human trafficking squad, explains:
Booth: We targeted individuals ... many of whom have multiple victims—not just regionally, but victims around the country.
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Costin: We have over 500 FBI employees who are involved in the Violent Crimes Against Children program. On top of that, we have hundreds more task force officers who are involved in our child exploitation and human trafficking task forces.
Narrator: But, he stresses...
Costin: We can't do this mission alone. Our local law enforcement teams can't do it alone. Our NGOs can't do it alone. So, we all work together. I like to think of it as: We all have a different piece of the rope, but we're all pulling the same way.
And we see that executed in this operation, whether it's an FBI agent conducting an interview, an FBI agent supporting a local law enforcement operation to try to draw in these predators. It's this team effort.
Narrator: And speaking of team efforts, the Bureau footprint behind Operation Iron Pursuit didn’t just include investigators. Child and adolescent forensic interviewers from the FBI’s Victim Services Division, or VSD, supported investigators by interviewing child victims. As Booth explains...
Booth: ... Not every agent that works crimes against children can be an expert at interviewing young children in a way that we need it done forensically to further the case, so we could not do these cases without our child forensic interviewers...
Narrator: And FBI Victim Specialists—or VSes, for short—also supported Operation Iron Pursuit by connecting child victims with referrals to support services and helping coordinate with partner organizations.
Costin: I would be remiss not to mention VSD and the support that they provide with the victims, providing resources to them, and really walking alongside of them after the law enforcement aspect of this has really kind of lost its momentum, in the sense that, you know, we have arrested the bad guy, but now VSD and our VSes come alongside and work with these victims.
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Narrator: You can learn more about this year’s operation at fbi.gov/ironpursuit.
You can also visit fbi.gov/vcac—that’s V-C-A-C—to learn more about the Bureau’s Violent Crimes Against Children program, its investigative priorities and initiatives, and also to access resources for keeping your kids safe.
And if you learn or suspect that a child is being abused or exploited, contact local law enforcement or contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI—that’s 1-800-225-5324—or online at tips.fbi.gov.
Costin: We encourage the public to come forward when they learn of these violations because we want to get after these predators who are looking to do harm to the kids and we absolutely want to keep our children safe. And if they remain in these situations, then they’re just under that continued threat of continued exploitation, and the only way that is going to stop is if some action is taken and they’re able to be removed from that threat.
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Narrator: This has been another production of Inside the FBI.
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And to subscribe to email alerts to learn more about new episodes, visit fbi.gov/podcasts.
On behalf of the FBI's Office of Public Affairs, thanks for tuning in.
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