In a three-day sweep of the country, the FBI has just completed what is believed to be the largest raid on child prostitution in the agency's history. When all was said and done, 150 suspects were arrested for their ties to a child prostitution ring that was operating in 76 different cities.

"Child prostitution remains a persistent threat to children across American," said Ron Hosko, assistant director of the FBI's Criminal Investigative Division. "This operation serves as a reminder that these abhorrent crimes can happen anywhere and that the FBI remains committed to stopping this cycle of victimization and holding the criminals who profit from this exploitation accountable."

In all, 105 children were recovered during the sting. So far the FBI has said that the children ranged in age from 13 to 17 years old. The youngest victim was the daughter of one of the arrested suspects. He had allegedly been pimping his daughter out and video taping her encounters with other men.

"With no way to survive on their own they are lured into a life of being trafficked for sex," Hosko said, adding that girls often enter the sex trade with compliments and offers of making money "and then they are trapped in this cycle that involves drugs, it involves physical abuse, it may involve torture... so that they are tied to the pimp."

Many of the children came from unstable backgrounds and had been recruited from foster care and group homes. Their services were offered up online as well as at some more seedy locations including casinos and truck stops. Authorities at the FBI said that it is common practice for criminals to target vulnerable children in the community.

"Many times the children that are taken in in these types of criminal activities are children that are disaffected, they are from broken homes, they may be on the street themselves," FBI Acting Executive Assistant Director Kevin Perkins said. "They are really looking for a meal, they are looking for shelter, they are looking for someone to take care of them."

The scope of the investigation was nothing short of massive. In all, 47 FBI divisions were involved in the raids known as 'Operation Cross Country VII.' They teamed up with more than 3,900 local, state, and federal law enforcement officers, as well as agents representing 230 separate agencies.

The suspects will now face criminal charges at both the state and federal levels, with the offenses varying from human trafficking, kidnapping, and coercion. The Justice Department estimates that one third of the roughly 450,000 children that run away from home each year will be lured into prostituion within 48 hours of leaving home.