International News
FBI Combats Child Sex Tourism
May 24, 2015 posted by Steve Brownstein
The FBI has a task force to track down United States citizens who travel to foreign countries to have sex with children. The FBI refers to it as child sex tourism.
“We're not going to tolerate the people of the United States going and ruining children anywhere on earth,” said FBI National Director James Comey.
FBI Special Agent Patrick Fransen said, “We're notified on a weekly basis of U.S. sex offenders traveling to countries in Central and South America.”
Fransen said many so-called child sex tourists crave the anonymity that a foreign land can provide and mistakenly think they can escape U.S. law by leaving the country.
Under the PROTECT Act, the U.S. can prosecute a citizen who travels to a foreign country to have sex with children. If convicted, a person can be sentenced to 30 years in prison.