Federal and local authorities rescued more than 30 missing children and uncovered multiple trafficking operations targeting vulnerable youth during a coordinated crackdown across Texas.

The effort, centered in San Antonio, led to arrests, felony warrants and several new investigations under a joint mission known as “Operation Lightning Bug.”

Teams from the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) out of San Antonio, Del Rio, Midland, and Pecos joined forces with San Antonio Police Department’s Missing Persons Unit, Special Victims Unit, Street Crimes Unit and covert operatives. Together, they combed through Texas and national crime databases to identify at-risk juveniles and coordinate recovery efforts.

More than 30 children were rescued in the San Antonio area. (Loop Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Traffickers are increasingly using technology to prey on victims, Kirsta Leeberg-Melton said. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

Leeberg-Melton emphasized that trafficking is not limited to border regions.

“American citizens can traffic American citizens on American soil,” she said, adding that most trafficking cases prosecuted in the U.S. involve American perpetrators exploiting American victims.

“The biggest myth is that it happens somewhere else, and it happens to someone else,” she said. “Until we start recognizing that people have value, no matter who they are, where they come from, what they’ve done or what’s been done to them, we will continue to excuse some level of exploitation.”

Leeberg-Melton also described sextortion as a growing form of trafficking that uses coercion to force sexual conduct or imagery.

“When you have someone that you are holding something over their head and then you are asking them for additional photographs or additional sexual conduct with the threat…that is a form, frankly, of human trafficking,” she said.

If you suspect someone is a victim of trafficking, contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888 or report anonymously at humantraffickinghotline.org.

Stepheny Price covers crime, including missing persons, homicides and migrant crime. Send story tips to stepheny.price@fox.com.