WASHINGTON - Seventeen people have been arrested in Mahoning County as part of a national crackdown on child sex offenders the Justice Department is calling “Operation Broken Heart.”

Federal investigators announced on Tuesday that nearly 1,700 suspected child sex predators were arrested during a two-month nationwide operation conducted by Internet Crimes Against Children task forces.

Fifty-five arrests were made in Ohio during the operation, according to David Frattarr, Commander of the Ohio Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

Seventeen of those arrests were made in Mahoning County last month as reported by the Austintown Township Police Department. Sixteen of those 17 arrests were made by the Mahoning Valley Human Trafficking Task Force in mid-May.

Across the country, the task forces identified 308 offenders who either produced child pornography or committed child sexual abuse, and 357 children who suffered recent, ongoing or historical sexual abuse or were exploited in the production of child pornography, according to the Justice Department.

"The sexual abuse of children is repugnant, and it victimizes the most innocent and vulnerable of all," Attorney General William P. Barr said. "We must bring the full force of the law against sexual predators, and with the help of our Internet Crimes Against Children program, we will.”