stepping into their world is both jarring and surreal. how many brothers and sisters do you have? >> i have 18. >> and albert, how many brothers and sisters do you have? >> 22. >> i am the oldest of 32. >> narrator: these are not members of the salt lake city based charge known as the church of ladder day saints. they belong to a splinter group

that believe in polygamy and call themselves the fundamentalist church of latter day saints, or flds. their spiritual leader, warren jeffs has been found guilty of sexually assaulting two children, and still faces trial on the count of bigamy to which he pled not guilty. the people are convinced that there's nobody on earth closer to god than warren jeffs. they believe jeffs, even behind bars, is the mouthpiece of god. words he utters are devinely inspired. law enforcement authorities have long been worried what would happen if jeffs told his followers to do something violent and dangerous. >> i've never seen it like this before. i've been here for seven years and i've never seen things so unstable. so lawless. i consider this the most lawless

town in the country. >> narrator: sam brower is a writing and been following the polygamist sect for a decade and has written a book about the flds called "prophets prey." >> do you think there's chair sons to be made like the mafia? >> yes. even the attorney general has said this is run taliban-style. and that's really all the flds church is, in my opinion. is a organized crime family. break-away sect say that kind of assertion is nonsense. the polygamist leaders and followers who live here simply want to be left alone, to practice their religion as they see fit. but real violence, according to some neighbors, has crept into

the community. this burned-out patch of grass in the town of colorado city, arizona, is ask evidence of what authorities say is very disturbing. they burned dozens of book here rather than let an opened library be built because they believe the books were collected by infidels. >> they burned things that didn't belong to them. they've broke noon the building. >> narrator: former flds member stephanie cogrove said she worked for more than two years to collect books for the library. a library independent of the church. what do they do with the books? >> they hauled them out of the building. >> and then what did they do with them? >> we assume they were burned. we saw a massive bonfire and assumed all of this was on the pile because we saw books in the burning pile. >> narrator: this is the remnants of the charred books. it looks like a medical textbook.

county investigators say the local police in colorado city are all members of the flds and have ignored the arson. those local police have not returned our calls. it's the county authorities who have worked to crackdown on the church. you're with the county. and they're the local police and normally, 99.9% of the time police all work together. you don't work with these guys, do you? >> not at all. i can't get them to talk to me most of the time. >> that's because according to they aboy the religious leaders first and civilian second. >> in your eyes their allegiance more to the united states or to warren jeffs, their prophet? >> i think their allegiance is probably more to the church. they are required to swear allegiance to warren in one of their church meetings here not long ago.

>> reporter: some say if you don't decide with warren jeffs, there can be trouble. are you afraid for your safety sometimes? >> sometimes you get worried. they've killed some of my animals. >> reporter: isaac whiler has lived here for years and until he split from warren jeffs, life was more or less tranquil, not now. >> one time there was like six dead cats in my window wells thrown in there. you go out there and there will be a dead cat or pigeon or duck or something. >> so you feel like that's a threat to you? >> definitely intimidation, but i don't intimidate that easy. >> attorneys did not return calls for comment on either the book-burning or the alleged intimidation. >> please don't point that at me. >> during my frequent reporting trips to colorado city we were often made to feel unwelcomed.

>> no cameras allowed here. >> this is private property. >> most of the people here will do what it takes to protect warren jeffs. tell me what warren jeffs means to you? >> i don't know what you mean by that. >> how important is he to you? >> everything. >> he's everything to you. >> uh-huh. >> and there's still a great deal of allegiance to the leader who's long been in jail. but that may be changing. just ahead, a man who was once one of warren jeffs' most loyal followers now tells a very different story. >> he in his own wards admitted to what he is. he said he's a wicked man and he confessed to doing some very terrible things. coffee doesn't have vitamins... unless you want it to. new splenda® essentials™ no calorie sweetener with b vitamins, the first and only one to help support a healthy metabolism. three smart new ways to sweeten. same great taste.

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even though he's just been found guilty by a texas injure of sexually assault two children, there seems little doubt that warren jeffs is in charge of his break-away sect. while he was in trial awaiting jail he did one thing above all else. he was on the phone. in this past month, how much money has he spent, would you estimate, on phone cards to make phone calls. >> roughly, $4,000. >> and in another jail a few dozen miles away.

>> in excess of 10,000, i would say. >> is that unusual. have you ever had an inmate spend that much money on phone cards? >> no. >> authorities say he has been given cash by his loyal followers to pay for the calls and they say they monitor what's said. mostly lengthy sermons and detailed instructions to his followers a few miles away at his isolated yearning for zion ranch, as well as to his followers in the polygamist towns of colorado city with utah and arizona. insiders say he's been excommunicating those that disagree with him. what it hadn't done is stop a growing feud between those that believe in him and those that now he's a child molester. >> i like for you to think if you were standing here today -- >> three years ago willie jessop was one of his most trusted lieutenants.

he showed me around the compound in west texas that was raided to show us that there was nothing bad inherently taking place. >> so where are they? >> right there. >> can i see them? today, jessop says warren jeffs has betrayed his church. >> he said he's a very wicked man and he confessed to doing some very bad things include molesting his daughter, his sister. i think his own words described himself. >> jessop is talking about diaries submitted as evidence that he says were left by warren jeffs after his arrest in las vegas five years ago. he's talking about these. pictures showing jeffs embracing and kissing young girls, no more than 12 or 13 years old, jessop says. >> his conduct will never be sanctions by me. i don't think there's anyone at my church that will ever

sanction what he's done. it's just a matter of time until they come to terms and figure out how to cope with what he's done. >> according to authorities, of both texas and canada, jeffs orchestrate had with canadian police called "the child trafficking ring." as i understanding as many as 30 young girls, ages 12 or 13, from a polygamist compound in british colombia across the u.s. border to flds enclaves in utah, arizona and texas. this is a very serious allegations here. >> essentially in layman's terms we're dealing with the exploitation of children and young girls for sexual purposes and the procurement of sex with girls under the ages of 18. >> and here is the canadian compound. now it has split into factions. one faction loyal to jeffs. the other loyal to this man, winston blackmoore. he's a long time polygamist.

>> i've heard the stories. just different people have come like you've come and told me about them. i feel very disappointed if they were actually true. >> a woman who did not want her face shown told us that it is true. she says she has first-hand knowledge. three of her nieces were among those sent away to be married to older men in the u.s. >> it angers me that 12 and 13 year olds would be taken away and given to an older man. and that he'd consummate their marriage vows. that angers me. i mean, they're just children. you know? it's not right. >> many girls investigators say, ended up here at this flds compound in pest texas where we tried to get some answers.

>> it's gary tuchman with cnn and we're doing a story about warren jeffs. cars went in and out but no one came out to talk. warren jeffs' attorney declined to comment. the people that live on the ranch in one of the most isolated parts of texas are not only loyal to warren jeffs they're the most loyal of the loyal. you're only invited to live here if the prophet himself approves. and despite his long stay in jails in utah, arizona and texas, jail time amounted to more than five years so far, that's what warren jeffs is to people that believe in him. a leader to be follow and obeyed, despite his conviction this week on two charges of sexual assault. he's also stand trial on a bigamy charge. officials of the mainstream

mormon church reject jeffs and his practices. but within the flds there seem to be more people supporting jeffs than those trying to unseed him. how long that will guest is anyone's guess. warren jeffs was his own attorney during his texas trial where prosecutors played audiotapes of sexual encounters with underage girls. even so, he's still controlling the destiny of his polygamist followers. listen to this young believe the arizona. >> tell me what warren jeffs means to you. >> i don't know what you mean by that. >> how important is he to you? >> everything? >> he's everything to you? uh-huh. >> and are you married yet. >> i'm not. >> do you want to be married some day? >> of course. >> do you want to have sister wives, too? >> of course, i do. >> how many sister wives do you think would be perfect, as many as i get. next on "cnn presents," the new face of america's epidemic. innocence.

>> if you're pregnant and you know it's harming the baby why don't you quit using the pills? >> it's just not that easy. you feel like you're going to die. and later -- caught by the u.s. navy's underwater recruits. marine mammals. can be even more powerful, with precise pain relieving cream. it blocks pain signals fast for relief precisely where you need it most. precise. only from the makers of tylenol. should i bundle all my policies with nationwide insurance ? watch this. on one hand, you have your home insurance with one company. and on another hand, you have your auto with another. and on another hand, you have your life with another. huh... but when you bundle them all together with nationwide insurance...

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from the outside, they look more like nightclubs than doctors' offices. and they're not too happy to see our cameras. we're here in a parking lot in one of these pain clinics. >> get out of here. >> broward county, florida, is filled with pain clinics. doctors making millions doling out precipitation opium like candy. >> oxycodone? >> oxycodone, 30 milligrams. rocksies, blues. >> i can get hundreds of hundreds of pills in one day going from one doctor to the next and then they take them on the street and they sell them. >> authorities are struggling to shut down these pill mills, but not fast enough. >> more and more people keep

dying from prescription drug overdoses. >> these doctors are slaughtering our children every single day. we're desperate. look at us. we're begging you. >> as one generation succumbs to prescription opiods. [ baby crying ] >> a new generation of addicts being born. >> we saw the number of crack babies that died and this is just another version of that. we all need to be concerned. >> good morning ladies, i'm jessica. i feel good today. casey goes for her follow-up appointment at the doctors so hopefully they'll say she's doing better and i hope everybody has a blessed day. this is casey's bed. like i said, she's a little princess to -- >> and that's where she was born? >> that's about a week after she was born. this is her nebulizer. it's kind of loud.

this is why we're going to the doctors, this nasty cough. >> for most of her pregnancy, jessica flooded her body and therefore, casey's with the prescription painkiller, oxycodone. they have emerged as the nation's fastest-growing drug problem. jessica fears the drug use is responsible for casey's frequent respiratory infections. >> with my other two kids they were never sick this young. so it's kind of new to me. god comforts us in a way a loving parent comforts a frightened child. >> two years ago, jessica's husband died. a friend gave jessica a couple of oxycodone pills to numb the pain. >> when i started i was taking like one to two and within a six-month period i was taking 30. 30 30 milligrams.

>> she was getting her pills from florida's numerous pill mills and then she got pregnant. >> if you are pregnant and you know that it's harming the baby and you know it could possibly cause birth defects why don't you just quit using the pills? >> it's just not that easy. you feel like you're going to die. >> this recovery center used to be filled with pregnant women who had abused crack cocaine. now it's pills. when did the first patient come in addicted to pills? >> in 2000, this is all cocaine, the blue line, versus primary drug of choice, prescription. and the crossover was sometime in 2009. >> pregnant women addicted to crack are encouraged to quit. but with opiods, babies get just as addicted as the mother. if she quits cold turkey, the baby could die in utero from

withdrawal. >> when you went through withdrawal did you feel like casey was, too? >> absolutely. >> how was that? >> she would like curl up, like in a -- because it was in the later part of the pregnancy. she would crawl up in a ball and my stomach would get like rock solid and she wouldn't move. you could feel it. you could feel that she was in torment. it's really sad, you know. to know that your basis is in pain while you're in pain and you feel horrible because you did it. you did it. you put yourself there. >> jessica was weaned off the pills before casey was born. those that aren't give birth to babies who begin to suffer with their first breath. so you have to detox the babies? >> they go through their withdrawal symptoms yes. they start out by having feeding intolerances, diarrhea.

they are crampy and miserable and irritatable. sometimes they can have seizures. >> according to state health records, during the first half of 2010 alone, 635 florida babies were born addicted. you're saying the number of babies you've seen addicted to prescription drugs doubled last year? >> yes. there are some situations where we have three or four babies at a time. it just makes everybody a little reflective and a little sad about the whole situation. >> even more troubling? researchers still don't know what the long-term effects of opiod use will be on infants. and neither does jessica. >> i know that i'm going through stuff the, getting off of the pills. so what's she going through? she's just a little baby? and she can't talk and she can't tell me how she feels.

i want to make sure that she doesn't want for anything. that she doesn't have to hurt any more than i already put her through. she didn't deserve that. she's a princess. coming up -- >> we're going to see her drug dealer. he has tear drops tattooed on his eyes. we see first-hand how the pill trade works.

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they're still rows and rows of pain clinics. we're seeing more babies being born addicted to drugs. >> more people died last year from prescription drug overdoses than car accidents.

>> our children are dying. and it's all young people. it's all the young people. >> what age were you when you started using coke? >> i was 18. that's me and my dad and my brother. and that's me and my mom before drugs. i used to be so prissy and preppy in all my pictures. i cared my hair and may make up. i don't give a [ bleep ] anymore. >> the addiction to oxycodone is killing her. there's five of the oxycodones and a bar and a half of xanax. >> she allowed us to film this because she wants us to show with what a rut these pills have made of her life. >> i love my family, but this is the only thing that i care about. it doesn't feel like i'm -- my vein isn't pumping up.

it burns until you take the tie out. i need more pills. i don't feel anything. i'm not satisfied. you can just leave the door opened. is that hard for you to see her like this right now? >> i hate it. i hate it. >> her mother, joy, is a nurse. but this is one patient she's not been able to help. >> she's dropped cigarettes in between her chest and burned holes in her, you know -- i mean, it's amazing that our house hadn't burned down, to be honest with you. >> your daughter is around her all the time. how come you can't keep her from doing the pills? >> she's trying.

i've tried everything. i say a prayer every time i leave for work. when i get home the first thing i do is i check on her to make sure she's still breathing. it's not a fun way to live. >> joy joins other south florida parents in protest against the pill mills that feed addiction. >> so the majority of people that are out here, have they lost family members to pills? >> all of them have. >> this is my precious son. his name is jay. he died at age 36 on his birthday. >> blaine died december 5th, 2009. >> your home at night and the phone rings and you're afraid to answer it because you don't know whether it's the sheriff, the morgue or the hospital. >> bree's driving us to go pick up more pills. >> how much money is this? >> i think it's $175. >> and this will get you one hit?

>> she spends thousands of dollars a week just to get high. we're going to see her drug dealer. he has tear drops tattooed on his eyes and gold teeth. you're not scared of this guy? >> no. he's a sweetheart. >> ignore me. if you see me on the street ignore me. my producer steve is getting out of the car because it might look too suspicious with him sitting in the back seat. >> let me get 12 until later. >> the dealer admits he gets his stash after visiting multiple pill-mill doctors. >> so what did he give you? >> 11 of them. >> what are they? >> oxycodone. >> to put this into perspective, the recommended starting dose for oxycodone is 10 milligramses in 12 hours. bree just bought 30 times that. and that's just enough to get her through one afternoon.

today, a multiagency task force busts 22 pill mills, arresting doctors for trafficking in illegal prescriptions. >> it's not uncommon seeing doctors making upwards of $1 million a year. >> but that's nothing compared to what some of the clinic owners make. dea agents seized more than two dozen luxury cars from the garage of one pill mill entrepreneur. >> this individual was making $150,000 a day. >> viper, porsche, a nice blue bentley. i don't know what this is. why does it take so long to bust the clinics? why can't you just go in and knock them down one by one. >> they do it under the cover of their medical license and you have to prove the doctor knew they were overprescribing.

>> these people are addicted. these people are suffering and these pill mill clinic owners and some of these doctors are just preying on that suffering. for the cash. for the profit. >> these are the faces of that suffering. >> i remember when i first started doing these occasionally. everybody, all my friends, none of us were drug addicts. now, the whole town is. >> one mother who has already lost her child -- >> yes, princess. >> another mother, who is hoping her past hasn't ruined her child's future. >> i don't want to ever forget how bad i felt. i don't want to ever forget what it could have done to her. it's not ever okay to do a pill again. ever.

up next, animals trained to take on terrorists. >> get ready for a episode of man versus dolphin. >> kaj larsen tries to beat a dolphin at its own game.

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like any combat system, prior to deployment, they're subject to may notance and inspections. >> before where he get out to get to work, what we're going to do is a body check. we're looking for attitude, appetite, and appearance. pleats go take a look. >> the handler is taking a look at the animal's mouth and eyes, making sure that this dolphin is real clean. now that this dolphin is looking good and ready to go, then we can go ahead and get them up in the boat and go out to work. >> reporter: dolphins have been working for the naefr since the 1960s when military researchers first started investigating how

their sonar capabilities could help naval missions. >> will they be able to train this animal to assist us in various ways in the sea. >> reporter: the navy quickly realized they could train mammals to perform missions. they served in vietnam and the persian gulf. today the u.s. is one of a handful of countries in the world which acknowledges having an anti-swimmer marine mammal program. this was something i was aware of from my time in the active duty navy, but now i'm about to experience it firsthand. it's unprecedented for the navy to allow what i'm about to do. now we're going to actually get in the water and put this thing to work, so today i'm the bad guy simulating that i'm a combat swimmer trying to attack a port, harbor, or ship, and they're going to release the mark six, the dolphin and see if it can find me in the water. essentially i'm the crash test dummy for the dolphin.

oh, yeah. get ready for an episode of man versus dolphin. a swimmer interdiction dolphin arrive from its pen to patrol area and is ready to go to work. hundreds of yards away armed with an ineither mine, i'm getting ready to face off. >> here's the mission. i'm about to enter the water. i'm going to attempt to head to that ship right over there as if i was going to make a combat swimmer attack on that ship. the dolphin is out patrolling, and we'll see if it intercepts me between here and the ship. >> good to go? >> good to go. >> utilizing a low profile side stroke, i'm on my way to the ship. the dolphin is on its way to me.

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playing the role of the terrorist in san diego bay, i'm trying to evade a dolphin who is trying to find hostile swimmers. >> he is not going to make it. she's going to get him.

>> out of nowhere -- >> there. she's got him. >> i got about, say, 50 meters from the ship behind me, and then, boom, came and hit me right here. >> the dolphin hits me with a marker that alerts arnold security to my presence. >> there's a second where i thought i was going make it through. next thing you know i was staring a porpus right in the face. >> just got me again. oh. oh. >> in a minute she's back on her boat and getting some tlc. >> i guess my combat ship attack foiled again. >> undaunted i try under water with my scuba gear on. here's what the camera on the

dolphin saw. under water or on the surface, the dolphin finds me every time. >> so how does she compare to, say, suppose you had a side scan sonar on the bottom of this boat? what's the difference? >> she's able to pick out details about an object that we would only dream to have on side scan sonar, and she can do it at great ranges with 100% reliability. >> the dolphin is looking for a swimmer like me. >> she's going to hit this ball right there. >> once she is sure that that's a swimmer -- there she go. so she just touched that ball right there. at this point we're going to have to get out of the way of the handler. he is going to let her know, hey, good girl. thanks for keeping your "aye out for us. he is giving her the marker. there goes the marker. now she's on her way like a shot, as you know. it's a pretty good little bump. >> that's one way to put it.

>> dolphins' jobs go beyond what the navy calls swimmer interdiction. it turns out they're very good at not only finding people in the water, but also things. things like mines. >> animal is using its echo location in the front of the boat. >> he supervises operations and works with the navy's explosive ordinance disposal unit. >> over time we had to train the animals to discriminate between, you know, it could be a lobster trap. oh, sorry. got a positive. right now the animal just went positive. >> what's she doing now? >> she's caring the marker down to the mine that she's told us she's found. that means the marker is deployed. the diver is going to do a circle search to verify that the animal has found the target. >> in 2003 the navy performed this operation in war time deploying mine detecting dolphins to iraq to insure safe passage for humanitarian ships.

meaning some of these dolphins are actually iraq war veterans. >> what about danger to the animal? you're asking them to go get close to explosive devices under water. >> mines are very complicated, high grade machinery. they're not set off to go on dolphins. they're set off to go on ships. >> even if the animals are safe, the marine mammal program has been criticized by animal rights groups who claim the work exposes the mammals to undue stress in an unnatural environment. >> how do you respond to people who say that the animal shouldn't be confined? they should number the wild? >> we recognize that people have concerns, and we're happy that people are concerned with the welfare of animals, as we are too. everyone who works on this project in any capacity suspect an advocate for animals, and that's their top priority. they wouldn't be here. it's something that -- it never leaves our mind.

>> the program ps first dolphins was captured in the 1960s. now dolphins are raised from birth. today the program also uses sea lions that were abandoned in the wild or bought from sea world. both animals receive top notch medical care. they can not only save leaves, but also millions of dollars. >> the navy does a lot of training for war fighting, and they shoot torpedos and drop sensors, and sometimes those end up at the bottom of the ocean during those training exercises. the question is how do you recover them? >> we have gus here. he is almost 10 years old. he is a trained mark five animal. he can dive up to depths of 1,000 feet, but right now we're just going to do a little deck demo over here and show you what we actually do under water. >> gus pulls it is cable to make sure he has made a good connection. >> then you reel it in.

>> yes. >> you will recover up to 40 items a day. >> water. stroo and his buddy, joe, is so well trained that even i can recover a test object. >> out. >> joe just made me look good. he did everything we talked about. now he gets a little reward. >> the navy has also trained sea lioned to recover not just objects, but people. i got in the water one last time to see how sea lions as well as dolphins can conduct swimmer interdiction. the result the same as the dolphin. caught but with a twist. a clamp that attaches to my leg. >> reeled me in like a fish. caught me like a bear in a bear trap. looks right on to your leg. >> but there's no hard feelings.

>> thanks for not hitting me too hard. thanks for being gentle. >> reporter: for the dolphins and sea lions it all seems like a game. oh, just got me again. find the target. get some fish. but for their handlers, it's much more. an unlikely partnership between humans and animals that right now is the most effecttive way to guard our nation's top maritime assets. it's a tradition in the navy for sailors to salute each other as a sign of respect. as i closed my time with the navy marine mammals, i was saluted by this unlikely warrior. >> good boy. >> working every day to keep the nation safe. >> on the next cnn presents, a pizza delivery man problems a bank with a bomb around his neck. >> my brother is sitting there with the bomb on him. i'm thinking theol