♪ (radio beeps) >> most people do not understand the volume of afficking that's going on in america, in our own backyard >> people want to think that human trafficking only exists in reign countries. >> grab her, grab her, grab her! hey! >> she's running! >> the recruitment is happening online, and on apps, and on m sociia where all the kids are. >> you are a product, and youva have no other e. ar >>tor: tonight... a special frontline report on a police unit in phoenix...

>> we just learned that our arrest team is in position... >> narrator: that tries to recover women and girls. >> i was out there for almost four years.te i d every second of it, iha d every call. >> somebody sees me like arrested like this like the girls or the pimp or something then... >> we're not out here just to give you guys a hard time. we do really want toelp get you out, okay? >> narrator: going undercover... >> once they friend me on facebook, then i just go intoth r friend list and i just hit 'em all up with friend requests. >> narrator: and online. >> some of them, they put 24 and they're actually 15. (police radio) r >> i have neever met a traffick that i felt sorry for. i mean they are literally selling humans day in and day out, out and making money off of them. >> narrators: stopping the traffickers and the buyers. t ngs cost different prices >> fetishes though are extra. >> without customers there's no girls out there, without customers there's no pimps.

>> narrator: the inside story of a brutal crime... >> police, hands behind your back. >> a drug is a usable quantity, that can be used up one time. a person can be trafficked over and over and over again, and that's why it's such a problem. >> narrators: and the consequences. >> for a lot of these victims, they spend years trying to rebuild their lives, and to have to rehash it all in trial, it's got to be really, really difficult. >> narrator: with extraordinary access. on the streets... >> hands up. >> narrator: ...and through the struggles for justice. >> the state of arizona... >> it's painstakingly long the time between the arrest an d the time that we see a suspect in trial. >> ...on behalf of the state...a >> nr: a story of courage... (crying) >> narrator: ...in the face of the unthinkable. or i want to have a future myself, and like show the people who hurt me like, you know, you hurting me just made me stronger. >> narrator: tonight on frontline... "sex trafficking in america."

>> frontline is made possible by contributions to your pbs yostation from viewers lik thank you. and by the corporation for public broadcasting. major support is provided by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information atcf nd.org. the ford foundation: working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. at fordfoundation.org. additional support is provided by the abrams foundation, commted to excellence in journalism. the park foundation, dedicated to heightening pubc awareness of critical issues. the john and helen glessnerru family. supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. and by the fronine journalism fund, with major support from jon and jo ann hagler. mand additional support f koo and patricia yuen. through the yuen foundation.

>> thousds of people are pouring into the phoenix area today... >> super bowl xlix, now just a day away... >> ...kicks off tomorrow in glendale, arizona... t >> fans seahawks and patriots flying in say they'relo ving the location... >> it's not just another nightn. on the t tonight, phoenix is the town... >> local businesses getting all prepped and ready. >> narrator: before the super bowl came tohoenix in 2015, the city began preparing for the arrival of tens of thousands ofe pe >> so many people here... >> narrator: and they worried th not all of them would b coming for the game. >> ...surprised to find out where sex trafficking's at the per bowl. >> there's always a lot of talk around any kind a large sporting event aboutin traffickers brng their victims. >> sex trafficking is a huge problem around the world... >> because they expect there to be a big client ba. (radio beeps) >> all right, we're in the area. .'re just south of you gu >> narrator: like other cities

around the country, phoenix was looking for a new way to deal with a persistent problem-- the sexual exploitation of women and girls. >> crazy how many girls are out here right now. >> narrator: one of the first things they did was change the way they look at the problem. >> just north of here. >> narrator: they started seeing it as a form of human trafficking. a pimp and a trafficker are the same thing. we just used to call them pimps all the time. >> grab he grab her, grab r! hey! >> she's running. >> the very core of what i trafficking isinfluencing, inducing, encouraging someone into a life of prostitution. nd-a-halfor: for two years, "frontline" followed a special police unit inix, devoted to fighting trafficking.ef >> ...nose that you didn't know how old she was. >> if you're exploiting someone else, and you're using their body and using them to make y money,'re a trafficker. ♪ (radio beeps) >> (on radio): hey, christi, if you could just come down, the

one that... >> narrator: when we phoenix in the fall of 2016, the police had just begun a new approach meant to treat the women and rls as victims, not criminals. (people talking on radio) >> before it was just, arrest, book, arrest, book, arrest book. (people talking on radio) itas more about addressing the community's complaints about seeing people out on the street. 27? okay. they tell us to f off, and wean book 'emwe go about our business. where you from originally? >> california. >>alifornia, what part? how long have you been out here? we started talking to some girls, and once we realized why they were out there, we realized we were approaching it wrong. unfortunately, we keep comingha across girlsare either really, really young; older and thought they wanted to do it and changed their mind, but don't know how to get out fymore. we started trying ure out, how can we help get them off the street, and, and go after the pimp, instead of the girls?

we really do want to help get you out,kay? >> if somebody sees me, like, arrested like this, like, the girls or the pimp or something, then... >> you kind of don't h choice right now to talk to us, right? i know it seems like a big to-d het we have to kind of make it that way, we know that, for you guys, okay? >> it's very difficult to put a number on how many victims are out there. >> she's going to talk with you. >> there's no stereotypical human trafficking victim. they span all ethnicities, all socioeconomic backgrounds, and alages. girl, you're so young. that makes me sa are you out here with anybody? >> no. y >> a working for a pimp? >> we don't really call them prostitutes anymore, you know, we call th victims, and then we call them survivors. and we try to empower them a little bit as they move through that culture. >> narrator: the detectives were also changing the way they oked at the men selling women, treating them as the

perpetrators of human trafficking. >> each state is different, and e federal law is different, r t overall, if you're using someone else for yrsonal financial gain, that is the true sense of being a trafficker it doesn't have to be across state lines, though most always it is. ♪ r: >> narrahen we started filming with the unit, much of the sex trafficking business had moved online, to websike backpage, a virtual marketplace for buyers and sellers of sex. >> we usually look for on backpage because that's where it's the most prominent. that's where we know most of the customers are going to look fowgirls, that's where we k most of the girls are being advertised. >> these are the adshat heidi pulled yesterday. >> okay. >> we chose this one, because her name happens to be jazzy,e and beca our case yesterday. >> oh, mm-hmm. >> we looked for juveniles specifically on back >> a lot of these girls, it's been my experience, they'rnot going to put 18, 19, they're

going to put 21 to 24, because w they dont us to think that they're underage. >> okay. >> everything on this could be 100% false. >> but if it looks like they're ung, they're speaking young, there's young indicators, plus there's someone else takingot their that it wasn't just a selfie, that it was someone else... >> ...to pt that. >> when i first came, there's girls working out on the streets, then it was on craigslist. craigslist shut that section down. which then made backpage popula and now, even in, more recently, in the last feyears, they're recruiting on apps. >> let's be a little vulnerable here. "i don't want to get myself..." >> narrator: becau traffickers hide behind the anonymity of the internet, the detectives have ten going undercover to t lure them into the open. >> with undercover febook accounts, i'll typically... i'll friend somebody who i know is out there, who we've, maybe wo had previously i.d'd. as a, as a pimp or as ing girl. and then once they friend me on facebook, then i just go into their friend list, and i just hit them all up with friend requests. because they're not going to

take the time, they just figure, h, (bleep), she's a really pretty girl, and look what her, look what her profile pic is." hed they all network toget >> narrator: they hire models who let them post their pictures online >> samantha, what was her name on there? um, ashley diamond. w l have multiple different profiles across multiple different pes of social media. this persona, i pretend to be very into fashion, so i willst share fashiof. and i'll post these funny little things.so an kind of mix it up to make it look real. i have about five fferent pages. this is the one i've been using the most lately, so... is a lot of work, and i do it when i can.s, the good thingacebook is something i can get on from my phone. when we're doing surveillance, i can sit there. we work late at night, i can post something. so i'm... that's the other thing, it's important to post thingsn the weekend or late at night, or... if i only post things, like, 0 toay through friday, 8 5:00, then i start to look like a cop, so... (computer chimes)on >> here, he red.

it looks like he's desperate for a girl. he's hurting for money right now. (exhaling): after a year of being my friend, all of a sudden, he just sends a random cebook message, then... i'm going to jump all over it and see what he has to say. "i'm not asking..." >> he probably sent that same message... >> to every single girl, oh, yeah. >> it's like a fishing expedition for them. we can develop charges on them, just based on this conversation and arrest them. >> yeah, if i can get him to meet all the criteria for it, then that's a ntastic pandering charge, whether he's in california or arizona or not. o work asi'm going a prostitute for him. he's going to take all of my money. i let him know i'm nervous about that. and he's just very, very nonchalant, like, "it's normal to be nervous about making suchn a ." >> sex trafficking is a new problem. i mean, it's, it's the oldest problem, but it's a new problem that we're looking at in a different way. >> narrator: dominique roe-sepowitz helped launch the anti-trafficking efforthe before015 super bowl. she's one of the few experts studying the scope of the probm. >> reliable statistics on sex

trafficking are very complicated to find. it is a hidden crime. the trafficker tells the victime thatre going to get in trouble if they disclose it. so oftentimes, our, the victims that we work with don't tell us quickly or upfront that thiset is sng that's happening. the sex buyers are, are purposely hiding their behavior, so they don't get caught. it's illegal to buy sex. f the whole thing is sort behind a screen. >> ...now, so they're out of the hame... >> narrator: it wa for the police to tell if there was an actual spike in sex trafficking around the superowl. but the event changed the way they have approached the issue ever sin. >> the super bowl was kind of the catalyst that brought all the parties to the table. it brought law enforcement in the same room with the service providers, iividuals that were out there in the community doing training; the, you know,le slatures, and the, or the governor and mayor. that'shat was the catalyst for bringing the task forces together. >> i'll be right back. i'm going to just grab my notepad, okay? >> narrator: the anti-trafficking effort hasar

beencularly focused on minors. in 2016, the unit picked up this teenager, named kat. she'd been abducted and trafficked by men she met online. >> i actually got a call at 3:45 in the morning. she's a 16-year-old who ran away inom the city of maricopa... and ended up herhoenix. >> he told me 15 minutes, 15 to 20 minutes was $100. 30 minutes was $120 to $150. and a hour was $200, but it depended. and, like, that was all he told me, but i'm guessinghat it went up more and more if they wanted more time. >> and who's the... >> we're seeing more and more girls, they're just typical teenagers going through the woes of being a teenager, and become a victim because they're vulnerable, because ther fickers have access to them through their phon and through the internet. he narrator: when we met kat a

few months after s'd been found by the police, she was back home with her parents. t >> i have k to them about making a schedule for the week. >> how are you doing in school? >> good, i just did a pre-test... my name is kat, and i'm 16 years old. >> and you just work 12:00 to 3:00 p.m.? >> i have three siblings, actually, two brothers and one sister. i love giraffes. (laughs) um... i don't really know what else to say. so this right here, um, this is pedro. ee's like something you slp on, it's almost like a, like a pillow. i... me, me and my parents had a been arguiot about just things that had been going on throughout, like, my life, n d things that were going their life, and it seemed like they were blaming me for everything, and i just, like, i couldn't take it anymore. i have facebook, i hadm, instag had all these things, snapchat, everything ke that. i, i, my friend told me about

this app, it was called meetme. it was like a, like, you meet people, and you talk to them,ow you it didn't really seem hake it was that harmful. >> this is theiring history. there's kat, and there's rafael. >> narrator: through the meetme app, kat began chatting with a man named rafael quiroz. ey exchanged messages fo almost a month. >> she talked to him about the avstruggles that she was hg at home with, with her family, and fights that she was having, and he was just pling on her vulnerabilities. >> narrator: rafael introduced kat to a frid of his named jesse cisneros. >> so jesse startedco esponding with her on, on snapchat, and jesse was the one o actually arranged to meet up with her. this whole section here is where they're talking about her running away. >> he offered to give me a ridea up to phoeni with everything in my head, i was, like, "you know what?ri it's just , you know? like, nothing is going to

happen."go when hhere, i climbed out of my bedroom window and got into his car. he was, like, "i'm not dropping you off." wa and like, you know, "what are you talking about?" he covered my ey, so i couldn't see where we were going. g was really dark. >> their plan was kat ngd utilize her for the purpose of, of sex traffic they knew it going in. kat was the unspecting one who had no idea, unfortunately. and that's how her nightmarebe n. ♪ wa >> i went to g her up for school, and i looked in her room, and i... i didn't see her. i drove all over town looking for her, and she wasn't there. and that's when we started realizing that something wasn't right. k >> narrato's parents filed a missing-persons report. >> so what i'm thinking is, "my daughter's layt in the middle of the desert dying, and she's crying for me, and i can't

be there." >> narrator: the n home, kat was driven 30 miles to phoenix, where she met a third man, who she says was the mostig ening of them all: bryant flemate. ♪ sa bryant was more of the enforcer, you coul he told me, "i don't give a (bep) who you are." wn said, "i own you. i own your body, iou, and you have no say in what you do." >> narrator: the men took her to a hotel. >> a that black truck right there is jesse cisneros's truckn this is jesse os. this is bryant flemate. they arrive to the hotelan togetherthen here comes kat. >> and that's where jesse explains, "you have a client." and i was, like, "what are you talking about, i have a client?e as, like, "you're going to

have sex with this man." he was, like, "you're going to tell him you're 19 and your name is rose."ge and this strcomes in... he did those things to me... he puts thmoney in the drawer, and then he leaves. ♪ it was like my whole world just collapsed. >> narrator: over the course of week, she was taken to homes and hotel oms and repeatedly sold forex, until someone saw her outside the hotel, became suspicious, and called the police. >> and then we went and checkedi back in, bwas into a different room. oo was at the comfort inn, but it was a different it was outside the room that i showed you. >> she's the only victim i've had who could tell me specific room numbers of hotel rooms that they had been taken to. okay, so they went into that room 204 that you pointed out

yesterday... >> when she could recall so much detail, that helped us tremendously in tracki down who all these players were. at this point i've got charges on all suspects. so we have three traffickers, in custody right now. r i'm preparing the case the county attorney's office, so they can move through the court process. >> narrator: for kat, this would be the beginning of a long and uncertain journey. >> typically, cases like this will take anywhere from a year-and-a-half to, like, two-and-a-half years to make their way through the court process. >> what we know, in most stas, is that traffickers get away with it. our research shows that about 27% victims participate in the court, that they will talk to law enforcement and them enough information to catch the trafficker and move forwd. >> (on phone): hello. hello this is vanessa.. >> narrator: many of the unit's cases don't start with a victim like kat. d so tectives are finding other ways to gather evidence

against potential traffickers.to >> just callinhat a little bit, 'cause... i just didn't know what you're all about, really. >> when we are doing a operation where we're talking to pimps, literally, if i don't answer my pimp's call, i'm not legitizing myself, and he's going to drop me. so it is 24/7 all the time. >> at the end of the day, i goaa take care of you, i go make sure you're straight. i gotta make sure your hair's done, your nails done, i gotta make sure you get your beauty sleep, i gotta make sure you have the proper hygiene. >> the first time i didn't answer a call, i had to explain myself the next morning, and he had pulled me ad off immediately and was screaming at me, because i didn't answer his call. >> you know, i gotta take care of everything. you know what i mean?

once everying starts getting going, and everything starts getting good, it's a really luxury life. i'm gonna put you in a position to win. a happy girl makes happy money. >> (laughing) it's all about the money. it is a buness to them. a drug is a useable quantity that can be used up one time, a person can be trafficked over and over and over again all day long. and that's why it's a such a growing probm. >> so there he is. he's responding now. we have him i.d'd. somewhere. "what you looking for in the one you choose?" aww. >> in the one you choose? >> i mean, this is fantastic. this is going to give us... it's an entire transcript. >> so, "i'm not asking for yout. to be perf i just... i just ask for you to have loyalty, dedication, and i want some elevation in your situation." >> he's talkg about money. the other part of this is proving the person behind the computer, behind the phone, behind the text messages.an that's we do other things to bolster the case, and in that

way, we can prove this is the person that did all these things, that i had the conversation with. get him in a telephone conversation, get him to purchase a, a greyhound ticket for me. get him at the greyhound station picking me up. let's e here. let's see if we can get him i.d'd. his name may not even chris, let's see what we got here. >> so... >> narrator: another one of the men she's been talking to online is dwayne mathis, ande has a long criminal record. >>o assault, marijuana, dv assault, and then he had a couple of bberies in 2012 and 2011. armed robbery. 90 days is the most he's, he's done in jail. >> 90 days for armed robbery. >> yep... >> so last week, on tuesday, i frlieve, i get a phone cal a sheriff's deputy out of

albuquerque... >> narrator: the unit habeen working closely with neighboring police departments, and quickly learned that mathis is a suspect in another sex trafficking case, involving a 16-year-old girl. >> they located her on backpage here in phoenix. and i don't know circumstances surrounding it, but according to glendale, they believe that that 16-year-oldgi out of albuquerque coincidentally works for dwayne. so we're going to have a good child prostitution charge on him, as well, which is a class two. >> you've made arrangements wito him that you'rming in tomorrow at 5:30? >> tomorrow at 5:30 on the greyhound, which there will be a greyhound pulling in there tomorrow at 5:30. o y. so i can get it set up with our faid guys. >> i will have him on the phone when he arrives tomorrow to kind of solidify evything else. i would want, i want him on the phone as he's pulling in the parking lot, if we can get him. ♪ >> hey, chris, we're heading that way. ♪ >> these guys that are trafficking the girls are also

sellindrugs and involved inal gangs ansorts of other criminal activities. so we don't know aot about this guy's violence potential. )people talking on rad >> okay. (radio continues) we're out at 27th and glendale at the greyhound bustation. >> he's in the parking lot guys. >> he is, he's right t black lexus right there. >> we got a visual on him. that's definitely our guy. >> call him real quick, just to make sure he gets on the phone. >> it's ringing, boss. he you ready or what? are you there or where you at? okay, all right, i just don'twa to be hanging out in front of some scary-ass bus station by myself, you know what i'm saying? (laughing): that's right. so... all right. >> boss he's looking down at his phone. he's not looking around at a. >> you're good to go anytime. >> on me, eric. i' take the driver's door. ready. move up. >> are you there? you okay?

>> let it go. and i want you to lay that seat all the way back, all the way back. lay it all the way back. ahs, yep. you're good, go ead and do it. go ahead, you're good. now i want you to turn over, and i want you to crawl out that back door. crawl out. do what you're told, do exactly what you are told.p >> keeur hands out, just like that. now pull yourself ou keep your hands out, hands out. y hands. >> hands out, keepr hands out. on your belly, on your belly! >> we've got hands. (handcuffs locking) >> good, thanks for doing what you're told, all right? okay? thank you for doing what you're told, all right? >> can you roll to your left side? >> okay, do me a favor? just sit up while i talk to you. it's a respect thing. i'm not gog to disrespect you while i'm in here, i expect you not to disrespect me, either, okay? all righ all right, all right, let's get this going, okay?

i got more than enough proof tow hat you were out there encouraging an... a female to ad a life of prostitutio >> that's not true, miss lady. >> okay, and you know what?th 's okay. i'm just telling you right now, you, you have every right, you're going to get an attorney, you can do your thing, you canfe yourself, so... yes, i'm booking you into jail today on that. >> is there any, is thcae any way avoid that? like, honestly. like, is there any way that i can sit here and avoid that?wa when i say "an" any way, i'll... if i could give you some... >> okay. >> a real person, that's really doing this, if iould give you, if i can... if i can... if i can just be an informant, anything, i... please... i will be an informant... >> that, and that's all stuff that you have to discuss with your, with your attorney. >> plee, listen, ma'am, you don't know what's going to happen if i go to jail right now. ma'am, ma'am, ma'a i know, ma'am... ma'am, please... >> all right, just take a breath, let me go do some paperwork.

>> please, just damn, (bleep) no. this is some bull(bleep). i'm going to jail, and i... (mumbling) >> narrator: with the evidence they'd collected, the unit was able to help prosecutor samantha caplinger build a sex-traffickincase against mathis. >> what we're receiving at the prosecution level ister investigation from law enforcement. they are getti every loose end that they can to make sure that this person isn't going to get away with what they did. and we're getting very thorough investigations, um, and that leads us to be able to get very strict sentences on these cases. >> narrator: mathis eventually pleaded guilty and was sentenced to nine years and three months in prison. after months struggling toju to life at home, kat has moved into the phoenix dream center, which spializes in caring for survivors of sex

trafficking. >> i actually ended up leaving home on july 25 of 2016, and i was sex-trafficked. (voice breaking): and it was the worst time of my life. sorry. >> we are always full. always full, and it's, it's sad, because we, we need a place that's bigger for us to be abled to help, so 't turn anybody away. the girl only gets that one chance, possibly, to call. and if you don't have a place for her, then who knows if she's ever going to call aga? >> so how are you feeling like you're seting in? >> i feel a lot safer here. >> how's your sleep? >> it's a lot better. i'm falling asleep at, like, 9:30, 10:00. i used to fall asleep at, like, 5:00, maybe 6:00 a.m. yeah. i didn't even know what sex trafficking was before i w taken.

i didn't know that i would end up in the situation that i ended up in. it's good to have peop up here that are, like, "you know, i know what you've been through. i may have not been through what you've be through, but i've been through something like that, so i, i can relate to how you feel, and i'm here for you." >> narrator: marriah has been living at the dream center for five month she escaped from her traffickers two years earlier. >> i was out there for, um, almost four years. i hated every second of it. i hated every call. i remember putting my phone on airplane mode sometimes, like, ed i would, i would take beating that came for that. but i just couldn't, i couldn't do it for, like, another... i couldn't... i couldn't do it again. but for me, like, like, when i started, it's, like, all these, like, big promises, and, lik "oh, you know, you can have tatever you want, and you can travel and you canake care ofur yoamily and not have to worry about anything, and i'll

keep you safe and make sure nothing happens to you."ey and entally trap you more, way more than physically. physically, i, i could have gotten away if, if i wanted to. you know, like, 'cause i was out on the track or in the room by myse sometimes. so, i mean, i could have, butit , like, emotionally and, and mentally, like, they have you, like, in handcuffs. it's, like, they pick the most insecure, like, or sad or, like, damaged in some kind of emotional way, like, female, and then they take them, and they just, like, build up the head with what... if you don't know what lovis, what you might perceive as love. then once they get you that way, then they flip the script, and they tell you, like, " mine," and, or, "this is always what you're going to be," and, you know, "you can't do t anything else and you caer leave, you can't ever get away."

like, "i'll find you," and just crazy stuff, you know? an like, you believe it. like, you believe what they say. in that moment, like, it sounds believable, like, "nobody will love you pt this, nobody will see past this," sounds believable. so you just, you just believe d, and then you just go, you think and you hope that things will get better, and then they never do. and then... you're just there. o and th day you wake up, and it's years later, and you're not even the same person. ♪ >> narrator: like many victims of sex trafficking, marriah says she was toscared to tell the police, so nothing ever happened to the men who traicked her. >> state of arizona versus bray alexander martinez aguilar.

>> narrator: but because kat did work with the police, they were able to arrest not just the traffickers, but one of the men who paid to have sex wh her. >> and laws changed, also, that it wasn't a defense for them to say, if they we buying sex from someone, "i, i don't know how old they are." we now, in, in arizona, if, ifer the person's u8, they're getting charged with child sex trafficking just like a, a trafficker would. >> narrator: the men gave detectives evidence that helpedr orate kat's story. >> well, sir, in light of the fact that you entered into ain guilty plehis matter, you've waived your right to direct appeal. >> narrator: he took a plea deal and got three years' probation. >> (speaking spanish) ♪ >> narrator: deterring customers has been a big part of the anti-trafficking effort in phoenix. the detectives do undeer work on the streets. >> it's nice to meet you. what are you looking for? >> sex.

>> sex?xo >> ¡sí! >> bueno. >> narrator: they then arrest e men for the crime of soliciting prostitution. >> human trafficking only perpetuates because there's a customer base. if we had no customers, we had d and, there would be no trafficking. that's simple economics. >> is this everybody? >> narrator: on this day, the detectives are planning a week-long crackdown on potential buyers. >> so we're going to do a hotel teversal operation today. >> when i first st we would arrest johns all the time. we would do undercover operation, we uld give them a ticket and send them on their way. >> ...would use that up... >> then we changed our policy of how we deal with them. they don't just get a ticket, they get booked, their photo gets taken. it becomes a little bit more of terrent. >> ...deals all off that, and do it just like we were doing the, the website. >> narrator: instead of working the stets, the unit is using online ads and a website it set

up to attract targets. >> so the decoys that will be posting ads are amber, evelina, christi, amanda, melissa, heidi... >> narrator: they schedule appointments for sex acts in downtown hotel >> yes, it is. what can i do for you? >> yes, i charge, but different things cosdifferent prices, period. what were you looking for, question mark.ay >> what did we$60 for a quickie? it depends on what you're looking for and how much... >> that soundsike a challenge. >> "daddy dom"... >> this is a full-time job, for re. >> there's a lot of customer base, there's a lot of demand. >> he just wants to be tied up by a girl his age. me stuff on the streets, but it's not as prominent as it is on the internet. a >> this is like fish in rrel right here. this is like throwing chum off the boat. >> we had developed a program where we were posting ads, and we were really collecting aller the data of ne that was contacting us: phone numbers, who was visiting the website. >> what do you want to do with my boobs?

>> every single time, we have a huge portion of the same people contacng our undercover ads. >> kitty and ass play, nothing uncovered. >> can talk re about that when you get here, period. >> (speaking spanish) >> were you loing for bj, question mark. if so, i don't do it uncovered,o ould you get the flavored ones, question mark. getting on the phone andta ing to men just being so vulgar is a major shif >> sounds like you and i are going to have a n afternoon, period. >> fetishes, though, are extra. so i don't know what y had in mind. >> now i have my husband calling. hello? uh, i'm the extended stay. we're doing a hotel reversal.l all right, ill you later. >> samantha? >> yes, dear. >> hi, about my kids? oh, by the waywould... how much for a (bleep)job?

ugh. >> i don't know who this guy is, but he's pretty aggrsive. that sounds illegal. there's a lot more fetishes and deviant behavior that's requested of the women. and that scares me. just because i hear whate theyking of me. so i know they're asking the same thing of somebody who's actually being trafficke >> people are, think that they're paying for something, so they can use and abuse and do whatever they want, because they believe that no one will care, no one will report it, nobods going to miss them, which, unfortunately, often is true. >> are you still on your way, question mark. i'm ready for you, period. >> this guy's going to be here in 40 minutes, the other guy is going to be here in 45 minutes. okay, and we just learned that our arrest team is in position. are we good to go with this? >> (on radio): we're, we're good to go. ♪ >> hello. are you here for kayla?

>> yes. >> kayla... come on in. okay. >> phoenix police. >> phoenix police, hands behind your back. >> phoenix police, phoenix police. >> put hands up. up. >> behind the back of your head. >> hi, phoenix police, you're undefarrest, take hands out o your pockets. (stuttering) >> put your hands behind your back, put hands behind your urck. >> hands behind ack, relax, relax, relax. >> okay, i will relax. >> processing... >> my guy's i.d.... >> missa? >> soliciting an act of prostitution. >> her guy was supposed to behe 15 minutes ago. 15 minutes, 15 minutes, 15 minutes.ck (kn door) >> hey, girl, he's here for you. >> almost every single male that i interact with, the first thing they want to say is, "whoa, no, no, no, no, no."ol >> phoenix pice. hands behind your back. >> i'm not doing nothing. >> hands behind your back. >> "didn't know. i had no part in it. the girls i inract with are not trafficking victims." >> i guess i would think that was probably more so in maybe

other countries. >> well, if i knew that, that someone was under the control y, a pimp doing it forcefu wouldn't, i wouldn't be ofterested in it. >> narrator: nonhe men arrested in the operation were engaged in sex trafficking, butt the dees wanted to send a message. >> but human trafficking could ry well have been what you just walked into. and because human trafficking ia so pnt here in arizona, our, our requirement went from a simple ticketo sending you on your way to now being booked into jail. (phone ringing) whene arrest them, and their lives are completely shattered because they've now, you know, their pictures end up on vebsites, or they end up on the news, and their find out, because their cars have been towed. i have seen more grown men crying as result of being arrested for, for this crimeer than any orime. (talking in backound) i don't think johns are held

nearly as accountable as what they should be. i think it's so rare for us to, as investigators, to actually find the johns and have the evidence necessary to prosecute them. i>> narrator: though a jo cooperating in kat's case, it's taking a long time to be resolved. >> anytime we do these cases, we want to get a photo of wt the victim looked like at the day that they were recovered. we want to be able to show a jury, because from the time she's recovered tohe time it goes to trial, her appearance could change drastically, and sw th the photo that was taken of kat. >> nrator: with kat's help, the detectives have been accumulating evidence against the three men accused oftr ficking her. >> she's got an impeccable memory, and we were able to find some really great surveillance footage. we also have, obviously, the hotel records for the vaous hotels she pointed out. we have bedding, some sheets that we'll be sending out for dna testing.

and we have a couple of cell phones, but one of the most important cell phones is, is rafael's cell phone. narrator: but after a year, there has been little progress in court. >> case managementonference on two matters, state versus... >> nrator: the three defendants-- jesse cisneros, rafael quiroz, and bryant flemate-- have appeared at more than a dozen preliminary arings. >> good morning, your honor. >> i was going to set another..i s painstakingly long sometimes, the time between the arrestnd the time that we see a suspect in trial. and we just don't have a control over that. >> narrator: kat has repeatedly come face-to-face with t three men, and it's taking a toll. >> i just don't know if i have idenough strength, like, iof me to continue doing, and being involved in the case anymore. this should have been over a long time ago. >> the victim's cooperation, and kat in this case, is absolutely perative for us to move forward. without a victim, there's no

crime. unfortunately, that's the way the justice system works when we're talking about sex trafficking.t so if kat was participate in this case, the suspects would be out, and we'd be done. ♪ narrator: after living at the dream center for nine months, kat has moved back home with her family. >> it's hard to be a parent and not... >> look at these nails.be >> .ble to fix what hurts your kid. she has to get past all this,n' and she get past all of it when it keeps dragging on. i senthis to the, the prosecutors: "i've realized through this process why victims do not report or trust our justice system. my daughter is a strrson, but even the strong can only take so much. she says she's oka but as her parents, we know she is not. she's stuck in the trauma of a-y r-old girl." >> narrator: as the case has been developing, kat'ser

ist, carla grace, is helping prepare her to take the witness stand at tal. >> so, kat, as we get closer, so if you could just let me know kind of how you're feeling and if things start getting more activated. okay, just let me know, okay? with any client, prep time tbe able to stand and to be cross-examined, i that's one of the most difficult, vulnerable times. and, you know, can she do it? probablyot today. but knowing that that could be down the road, then there is a lot of things to do to prepare for it. >> narrator: kat has asked carlto take her back to the scene of the crime. >> i haven't been over here since everythi happened. >> say, like, right now,ike, on a scale of zero to ten? >> like, a seven. >> okay. kat, if there's a certain point where you're just, like, "okay, this is close enough," just let me know, and we'll pull over, okay? >> okay.

you can pull in right here. you go straight. >> swhere are you now? >> i'm scared. >> okay, zero to ten? >> eight. it was right at the top of stairwell.th room was 206. this is the room wheret choked me for the first time. i had just gotten out of theer sh and he said i was being disrespeful, because i didn't want to do nothing. and so i got..i started getting lippy with him, and he grabbed me by my throat and pushed me onto a little coff table that's in there. and he told me that i was his (bleep) bitch, so he didn't care. (kat sniffling, crying) (crying continue >> (softly): it's okay.

ah, it's time to just let it be released.(k continues sobbing) ♪ >> narrator: after two-and-a-half years, there's finally a brk in kat's case. she won't have to go through the ordeal oa trial after all. (talking in background) one of the acced traffickers, jesse cisneros, has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in hopes of reducinhis sentence. >> ...ask additional questions, to fill in some holes for me. ab >> he wa to corroborate a lot of what kat had told me. he was ablto talk to me about the hotels that she was taken to. he gave me the information onrs

some custohat had, she had been with, who posted the ads, who took the photos. >> i had kat take pictures, everything was on my phone. >> basically corroborated everything i already had with kat. and aftehe signed the testimonial agreements, plea deals started happening. >> that, too. >> narrator: all three of the men accused of trafficking kat t would end ing plea deals, sparing her from having to testify at any of their trials. ly>> i'm hoping she can re just kind of put it behind her and focus on going forward. had we taken this case to trial, they wod have spent likely, you know, the rest of their lives in prison, or, or pretty close to it. showing up to court every month and having to fase people... >> narrator: the men would still have to go to court for a judge to determine their sentences. >> ...detrimental to her healing. >> narrator: in march 2019, kat arrived at the courthoe in phoenix. >> all rise, please. >> narrator: jesse cisneros was going to be sentenced. >> thank you, please be seated. >> i'm happy that the trial'

not going through. that should be the one thing that i get out of all of this,us isthe right to, to happiness, you know? >>dour honor, the victim wo like to speak... >> narrator: she had decided she wanted to read a statement. >> okay. i've been waiting for this moment for almost three years. and i just want to say the right words; and i want to say words that'll stick with him for a really long time. i wanted to speak today, because i really need this to comeo an end. (breathes deeply) for the past three years, i have gone through more th young adult should ever have to go through. court date after court date, i was forced to see the defendants denying their actions, knowing very well they, they knew what they had done to me. it has affected me and my family, as well as everyone around me. in multiple instances, the defendants beat me, sexually assaulted me, starved me, and let other strange men dohe same. (crying) they would hold me down, and when i would beg for them to

stop, they would, they would cover my mouth and laugh, laugh at the fact that they werehu ing me. doing something like this to a person is inhumane, and when they were doing it, they thought about no one but themselves. i'm going to have to deal withhe this forest of my life. >> you've seen the victim, and you've seen the harm that he s used. the fact that she aded like property; the fact that she was beaten and her life was threated daily is not something that should be forgotten in this case. and what the state finds the most reprehensible about this case is that mr. cisneros saw no difference between tra drugs in society and trading victims and females, such as the victim in this cas >> thank you. mr. cisneros? mr. cisneros, anything you want to say on your own behalf? >> i don't expectheir forgiveness...

but i... i would like them to know that i deeply am sorry, and i would like them to just be able to move on from this. >> well, mr. cisneros, unfortunately,'ve had a number of cases like this, um... i'm frankly shocked. i mean, to abduct a child and force her into commisex acts for money. difficult to think of something more despicable than that. th's just, i mean, it's ve disturbing. it's very disturbing. um, the victim in this case described it as inhumane, and i think that that's, that's a good way to describe it. um, you and your co-defendants preyed on a child and used her to make money in the worst possible way that i can think of, by performing sex actsai t her will. um, it, it's, it's really a disturbing situation, as all these cases are.

the impact that this has had on the victim is, is obviously the strongest aggravating factor in this matter. iv, she's going to have to with this the rest of her life, no matter what happens. this is going to be something she is going to have to carry, with hd it's going to be a burden. >> narrator: the judge gave cisneros 24 years for child sex trficking and other charges. >> narrator: at his hearing, rafael quiroz was given ten years, and bryant flemate, 16 years. they will all be on lifetime sex-offender probation, due to new anti-trafficking laws in arizona. >> it didn't hit me until probably, like, that night at probably, like, 3:00 in the morning, 4:00 in the morning. i just started crying, and it was over nothing, and it was just, like, i think it was just my body telling me, like, "youea can e, you know, it's, it's finally over.

like, you can live your life; you don't have to worry anymore," you know?ng (siren blaradio squawking)r: >> narrato since phoenix began its new approach to sex trafficking, it has seen victories... >> the longer you stay out here, the higher the risk is. >> narrator: ...but also newes challe >> so there isn't really a centralized place for us to go and look, ght now, to help us find the victims. >> narrator: backpage, the most popular website for sexck trafs, was shut down. >> so now we're just trying to figure out, um, where everybody's going. so these new websites have popped up. bedpage, which is almost an exact replica of backpage. then we've got onebackpage. basically, it's all of these different websites now that we don't have, um, any agreements or search tools with, and they've kind of spread out. so we don't have a certain

location to go look for them anymore. and it's kind of a, a crapshoot. >> there always seems to be this urgency to, to take things down, to make it inconvenient for the traffickers. but when you do that, there is always unintended consequences. so you take down backpage, and then, you know, there is more t trafficking street, it becomes more violent. >> so he choked you out, because you wouldn't work? >> yeah. ja he come out of nowhere, punched me in th choked me. >> i've been raped. o did it to a gang of girls. >> just be carefmy head, i got beat up real bad this morning. >> you got jumped this morning?t >> the actout here is more than we've ever seen in our careers. and we're seeing a lot of girls, young girls, out heren the streets now. >> what's your first name? >> nadia. >> nadia. honestly, hon, you don't look like an adult to me. you look very young. >> ooh, a lot of freaking cops

just for nothing. >> i think the thing that's rtting harder and harder us is to figure out where victims are. >> come on out, hon. >> our work is constantly having to shift, evolve, and we are having to adapt to what the traffickers ardoing with their victims. it's like a cat-and-mouse game. >> grab her, grab her, grab her! hey! >> she's running. >> i think it's the old-fashioned copsnd robbers. we're reacting, obviously, and we're going to change with how awey change, but the wheel goes round and round in enforcement. >> melissa's been working this guy for two or three days now? >> i just got an "okay," but he said not till 9:00, and that's in 13 minute so his life is going to change in 13 minutes. >> and he's knocking on the room. >> narrator: for the detectives in phoenix...nd >> put your haon your head. turn away from me, turn away. >> narrator: ...the fight against sex trafficking goes on.

♪ >> gto pbs.org/frontline for more on the changing landscape of sex trafficking. >> previous to the internet traffickers had to work to build a relationship to get that trust from those victims. >> and who is at risk. >> we're seeing more and more girls beuse the traffickers have access to them, through their phones, and through the internet. >> tn visit the frontline archive where you can stream more than 200 frontline mentaries. connect to the frontline community on febook, twitter and pbs.org/frontline. >> a pension is a promise! >> they're paying into a pension that the state promised was going to be there. >> they have effectively raided pension funds. the bill will me due. >> many pension funds take on more risk. >> they're trying to gamble their way out of the problem.

>> get the new york money managers out of my pension! >> this is a crisis of epic proportion.s >> a pension ipromise! >> narrator: next time on frontline. >> frontline is made possible by rsntributions to your pbs station from vieike you. thank you. and by the corporation for public broadcasting. major pport is provided by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information macfound.org. the ford foundation: working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. at fordfoundation.org. additional support is provided by the abrams foundation, committed to excellenc journalism. the park foundation, dedicated to heightening public awareness of critical issues. the john and helen glessner family trust. supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. and by the frontline journalism f

with major support from jon and po ann hagler. and additional s from koo and patricia yuen. through the yuen foundation. captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> for more on this and other "frontline" programs, visit our website at pbs.org/frontline. ♪ to order "frontline's" "sex traffking in america" on dvd visit shoppbs, or call 1-800-play-pbs. this program is also available on amazon prime video. ♪

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