Madeleine McCann's 'Operation Grange' Receives Additional Funding As Search For Missing Girl Continues

Officials in England investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann have been granted additional money to support the ongoing search for the missing toddler, according to reports Monday.

The amount is believed to be roughly £150,000 ($185,781.52), which is said to equal the annual salaries of four police officers in the U.K., according to BBC News.

And Scotland Yard, the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), which has been running the search called "Operation Grange," has yet to release an actual figure. In 2011, the MPS launched its own investigation into what had happened to the child.

The force said it obtained more money for the probe which has since come from taxpayer’s funds after Portuguese detectives ended their investigation in 2008.

So far, more than £11 million ($13,623,978. 50) has been spent in efforts to find the 3-year-old, who reportedly went missing from her bed in the family’s apartment in Waterside Village in Praia du Luz Portugal in May 2007.

Still, the U.K. has allotted money for the mission every six months, with £154,000 ($190,736.70) granted from October 2017 until late March, regional publication Daily Express reported.

The investigation was reopened in 2017 after police began considering a new theory that the missing girl could have been a victim of human trafficking. The number of local police officers assigned to the search had been cut from 29 to four in 2015, BBC reported.

Amid the news of the extra funds, detectives have not provided details of the "important final line of inquiry."

"We are not publicizing the figure applied for by the Metropolitan Police and the amount given this time," a Home Office spokesperson told the Sun. "There is a lot of sensitivity surrounding this case and it is a challenging time for the Government. We remain committed to the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine and advised the MPS last month that an application for Special Grant funding is being granted."

Meanwhile, the girl's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, are preparing themselves for the 11th anniversary of their daughter's disappearance.

“They are very encouraged that police still believe there is work left to be done and they are incredibly grateful to the Home Office for providing an extra budget for the investigation," Clarence Mitchell, a spokesperson for the McCann family told the Sun. "It gives them hope that one day they may finally find out what happened to their daughter."