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Intelligence Analyst Works to Save Kids

Jamie Konstas knew in college that she wanted to work for the FBI. She majored in a variety of disciplines and interned in private industry, at the Department of State, and at the non-profit National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, where she met a Supervisory Special Agent in the FBI's Crimes Against Children Unit. "I thought she had the coolest job in the world," Konstas says. That was eight years ago.

Today, Jamie is an FBI Intelligence Analyst detailed to the Virginia non-profit where she caught her inspiration. Now, she says, "I have the best job in the Bureau." We talked to Jamie about her role in the Crimes Against Children Unit, which is the operational arm of the FBI's Innocence Lost National Initiative to recover child victims of prostitution, prosecute their exploiters, and reduce crimes targeting children.

Q. Jamie, can you describe a case you've worked on?
Jamie: Sure. I recently worked on a major child prostitution investigation called "Precious Cargo," which centered on sex trafficking in Pennsylvania, but reached as far away as Florida, Michigan, and Oklahoma. We had intelligence that showed Harrisburg was a hub for trafficking and that minors and adult victims were being prostituted at truck stops. I worked alongside the Pennsylvania State Police, the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. Attorney's Office, and the FBI's office in Harrisburg. The evidence we gathered exposed the massive scope of the prostitution ring. Last December, a Federal Grand Jury returned indictments against 21 individuals on charges of sex trafficking of children, money laundering, and conspiracy.

Q. What do you do specifically as an Intelligence Analyst?
Jamie: I work with law enforcement officers around the nation to locate missing children. I provide analytical support in child abduction cases such as non-family abductions, international parental kidnapping cases, and parental kidnapping cases. For cases involving child prostitution I connect the dots and help agencies build substantial cases against the pimps responsible for their exploitation. It's not easy. Pimps travel a lot and use a number of aliases. In the "Precious Cargo" case, I analyzed tens of thousands of records linking pimps and victims in Harrisburg to other cases around the country. On a national level, I seek to identify trends and patterns to assist in investigating all crimes against children.

Q. Do you travel much?
Jamie: A lot! I'm out of the office probably one week out of every month. I travel to field offices around the country to work on cases and brief them on how transnational child prostitution rings may be affecting their regions. I also work with Interpol on international parental kidnapping and sex tourism cases, so that has taken me to conferences in Sri Lanka, France and Canada.

Q. What drew you to this line of work?
Jamie: I'm very passionate about investigating and preventing crimes against children. Knowing that we are working cases where children are recovered and pimps are prosecuted every day is what makes it a great job. It's not for everyone. We all know what we're getting into and you have to be able to balance it. You have to be able to leave it at the door, which is hard. A positive disposition helps!

Footnote: The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in May honored Jamie Konstas along with Pennsylvania State Trooper David E. Olweiler, IRS Special Agent Christopher D. Kegerreis, and FBI Special Agent Mike Beaver for their roles in the Precious Cargo investigation. Details

Source: FBI