Asia-Pacific
Four days. Three operations. Sixteen Children Now Safe.
Armed with a search warrant, officers from the Philippine National Police intended only to look through 71-year-old Herman Arnett Ross’s Angeles City apartment. Police were investigating allegations against Ross, an American living in Pampanga, for child trafficking crimes.
But when officers uncovered evidence that Ross was seeking to sexually exploit a teenage girl, they quickly mobilised to arrest him, ultimately catching Ross in the act of offering child exploitation online.
The U.S. FBI first alerted Philippine law enforcement to Ross’s suspicious conduct. He is suspected of producing and publishing content online that contained the sexual abuse of Filipino children, and he was found in possession of such content upon his arrest.
Ross’s arrest comes just days after IJM’s team in the Philippines supported a string of successful operations. On Saturday, police rescued 15 children across the country, and arrested three other suspected traffickers. The rescued survivors range in age from 9 to 17 years old. They are now in the care of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, where they’ll receive the care that they need to heal from their abuse, including trauma therapy.
PNP-WCPC-LFU arrest Herman Arnett Ross in his Pampanga apartment. Please credit International Justice Mission.
Learn more about cybersex trafficking here.
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