Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier and the United States Marshal for the Central District of Florida William Berger announced at a press conference on Monday that a two-week operation known as Operation Dragon Eye — one of, if not the largest child rescue mission in United States history — was a success.
The two-week operation saved the lives of at least 60 children and saw eight adults arrested on charges including human trafficking, child endangerment, drug possession, and drug trafficking. Operation Dragon Eye involved over 20 agencies and 100 people.
Over two weeks, our prosecutors worked with the U.S. Marshals and law enforcement on one of the largest child rescue operations in U.S. History, resulting in the rescue of 60 missing children.
Operation Dragon Eye resulted in 8 arrests, and additional human trafficking… pic.twitter.com/2NnVEDjTxE
— Attorney General James Uthmeier (@AGJamesUthmeier) June 23, 2025
Most of the children, who were ages nine to seventeen years old, were found in the Tampa Bay area. Their stories are heartbreaking.
Berger said the children have been “debriefed and provided with physical and psychological care,” but some of them required additional assistance: maternal care. According to Natasha Nascimento of Redefining Refuge, many of the young girls were pregnant. She says the operation didn’t just recover children; it recovered generations.
Nascimento went on to tell the story of one of the girls who is pregnant with the baby of her trafficker and what happened the first time she heard her own child’s heartbeat:
And when she was brought to BayCare for medical assistance and to one of my team members, Addie, who I’ve already mentioned, Addie had the great privilege of going with this child to get her very first ultrasound. She was in her second trimester of pregnancy, and she had never, ever heard the beating heart of her baby.
And so, the ultrasound began, and she heard her baby’s heartbeat for the very first time, and she just began to weep, and all she said to Addie was, ‘My baby.’
But this moment awakened something in this child, and it shifted something in this child, and it was almost as though she realized that instead of just doing the soul-stretching work of surviving, she was willing to fight for the life that was inside of her.
Nascimento went on to thank the law enforcement officers and others involved, telling them that they not only gave this young girl a second chance at life, but they also gave her baby a chance for a fresh start.
And so, to every single person that is sitting in this room, to the officers who knocked on that door, you didn’t just give our child a chance. You didn’t just protect her. You protected her child.
And now because of you, a baby has the opportunity to be born addiction-free. This child was forced to use substances by her trafficker throughout her pregnancy, and so a baby gets to be born addiction-free. A baby gets to be born to a mom who’s not being sold every day, and a baby gets to have a story that doesn’t start with trauma, but that starts with recovery.
Others spoke at the press conference, and while not many details were given about the adults arrested, everyone involved made it clear that the state of Florida will continue cracking down on any type of human trafficking.
“60 kids saved. That number sends the message that Florida will never be a safe place for traffickers,” said Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) Commissioner Mark Glass, adding, “At FDLE, we will continue to fight for those who cannot fight for themselves. And to any family still missing their child, we will never stop searching until we make sure they are brought home safely.”
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