Cook County sheriff’s office nets 101 arrests in sex sting

More than 100 people were arrested locally in recent weeks as part of a national sex trafficking sting operation.

The National Johns Suppression Initiative ran from Jan. 18 through Feb. 5 and led to the arrests of 29 sex traffickers and of 723 people who tried to purchase sex, the Cook County sheriff’s office said.

In Cook County, 101 sex buyers were arrested by deputies and officers with the Lansing and Matteson police departments, the sheriff’s office said. Also in Illinois, the Lake County sheriff’s office reported two arrests of sex buyers and the Arlington Heights Police Department reported the arrests of five sex buyers.

The initiative was launched by Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart in 2011, the sheriff’s office said.