on the streets of chicago and all across america, the business of sex for sell is booming, fueled by the internet. >> this is not a problem that just happens in another country. >> we have girls come from texas, from minnesota, girls come from iowa. >> so what am i going to be arrested under for? >> prostitution. >> in a world where girls and young women take all the risk, pimps and traffickers keep all the cash. >> it's not physical bondage. it's mental bondage. this is what traffickers and pimps and predators do. >> tonight msnbc goes undercover with the cook county human trafficking task force. >> get them out of here, quick. >> as they battle the buyers and settles of sex and reach out to

rescue the young and the lost trapped in chicago's underground sex trade. rising from the shores of lake michigan, the skyline of chicago sparkles and soars. but beyond the glittering facade of glass and steel lies a city at the crossroads of america's underground sex trade. >> relax, okay, sweetie? >> okay. >> don't be nervous or anything. >> tonight police find this young woman selling sex in a hotel room more than 600 miles away from her home in arkansas. local authorities say it's an all too common occurrence in the windy city. >> it does happen here in our own backyard. in cook county, chicago is a

transportation hub. it's a convention hub. and it's ripe for this type of crime. >> how did it go in court? >> illinois states attorney anita alvarez heads up the cook county human trafficking task force, a joint effort by local police and prosecutors to combat the booming underground sex trade in chicago and the surrounding suburbs. >> do your parents know where you are? >> i think that we're really not going to get anywhere or make a dent into this crime unless we as local prosecutors do more. >> in 2011, the illinois safe child act became law in the land of lincoln, giving local police and prosecutors a new set of investigative tools to identify and rescue trafficking victims. provide them with social services and punish the pimps that exploit them. >> i like people to think that this could be their daughter. >> reporter: tom dart commands the task force in the field. he says part of his job includes

changing the public's misperception about the girls and young women who work the these are real humans that no different than our children. and the reason that they're doing what they're doing now has a long history. and it's an ugly history. and people need to understand that. understand that. >> you okay now. >> in the task force in cook county is one of the more aggressive local law enforcement efforts aimed at rescuing trafficked women and arresting the traffickers and johns that exploit them. >> what's going on at the hotels? >> special operation's commander mike anton takes the lead on today's investigation. >> we're doing reversal. prostitution stings. our goal is to try to find the girls that are being trafficked and pimped out on the internet. so we'll answer ads and the girls are come to us. we have a couple of dates.

one date set up and we'll also do an operation where we answer the ads and we go to them so we'll have two teams going out. we'll also post some ads of our own and try to have some men answer the ads to come to the hotel. >> today's operation is comprehensive, attacking both the supply and demand sides of the sex for sale equation. and focusing primarily on the digital street corner that is backpage.com. >> there's hundreds of sites out there. backpage has taken a hit because they're the largest. they make millions. they know and have acknowledged what's going on and they won't make an effort to stop it because they're making so much money. >> and then i go down to rush street -- >> the cook county task force includes crisis counselors like brenda powell, a former prostitute, who now works the other side of the street, reaching out and offering guidance to girls and young women trapped in the life. >> in the 25 years i was in

prostitution, i've been shot five times, stabbed over 13 times. beat, kidnapped, held against my will. lots of things happen when you're in prostitution. >> every time you go out there and somebody pulls a gun to your head or something like that your chances get lessened, you know what i mean? i understand where they come from. i understand who these women are. who better to send in and talk to them than swup that's been through it and that's what i do. >> it's a little after 1:00 p.m. with the task force sets up in a hotel near o'hare airport. this strip of hotels and motels is a well-known hot spot for the business of sex for sale in cook county. male undercovers in one room begin making contact with women advertising sex for sale on back page.com. >> i'm looking at your ad on backpage and i'm hoping you're available. would you be willing to come to

me? i'm at a hotel in schiller park. >> meanwhile, in a room across the haul female undercover post fake ads for sex on backpage and lure johns to the hotel. >> you coming to visit me? i charge $90 an hour for full service. he's calling for a date tonight and wants to know if i do greek which is a common term for anal sex. i'm in the o'hare area. i can't wait to see you. >> female undercovers make contact with the eager john. >> right now he's going to be here in two minutes. >> meanwhile, a male undercover in the room across the hall has a subject under way. >> you're not the police, you got to tell me that, right? that's why i want to give you my number. i don't want your dudes kick in my door. >> the team scrambles for two simultaneous takedowns. >> you good? >> it's always feast or famine.

we'll have nothing and make the phone calls and put the ads on and in the space of a half hour we'll have five people show up. it's critical when we take this guy down we bring him in here immediately. >> arresting officers huddle in the next room. eyeballing the john's aprooich in the hallway and waiting for a hick on the panic pager the deal for sex has been made. [ beeper going off ] >> hands out of your pocket. you're under arrest. >> these stunned john is quickly cuffed and hustled into a processing room. >> get him out of here quick, hurry up. >> while officer rest set the trap for a call girl who is only moments away. [ beeper going off ] >> hey how you doing? >> police. >> police. >> what's going on. >> i need my phone real quick. >> all right. we're the police.

okay? so you know. you're under arrest. >> okay okay. >> the team has two in the bag and they're operation has only just begun. i don't think we should get in trouble for this at all. >> that's what they want to do. you know? ♪ through 12 blizzards blowing ♪ 8 front yards blinding ♪ 6 snowballs flying ♪ 5 packages addressed by toddlers ♪ ♪ that's a q ♪ 4 lightning bolts ♪ 3 creepy gnomes ♪ 2 angry geese ♪ and a giant blow-up snowman ♪ that kind of freaks me out [ beep ] [ female announcer ] no one delivers the holidays like the u.s. postal service. priority mail flat rate is more reliable than ever. and with improved tracking up to 11 scans, you can even watch us get it there. ♪

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equation. a call girl is arrested moments later. detectives want to know more about the young woman's situation to see if she's in physical danger or in need of social services. but first, they must dispense with the john. a married man on his way home from work. the john seems to be on the virge of tears. he tells the police this is the first time he bought sex. he has one concern. keeping his wife in the dark about his so-called "experiment." >> they got a lot to lose. most of them are married. most of them have children. they're doing this and they all say this is the first time but there's no way 'tis first time because most people don't get

caught the first time doing something wrong and they're all apologetic and they're sorry they got county. >> in cooke county, the law griffs them a choice. fight the case in court or pay a steep fine and have the arrest wiped from their record. >> freedom here. we can talk about it. >> we have the ability to write tickets to these guys and it will cost them $500 cash and it's another, so it ends up being about $1170. the money we get from the fine goes to the women justice program and these guys, right away, almost all of them pay within 24 hours, cash. >> in keeping with the county's request for discretion, we have agreed to obscure the identities of the johns arrested today. >> i've had some discussions with some of the men that we've brought into custody. it's abundantly clear to me that -- if they're going to

continue to do this and i have no way what they're going to do, they certainly aren't coming around our area anymore. we do it so often that a lot of people are thinking twice about what they're doing. it's not worth the down side having their entire life thrown out there. >> in the two years since cook county police started slapping fines on jones, they have generated more than $100,000 for the women's justice program and have yet to encounter a repeat offender. the detectives turn their attention to the woman in custody, we'll calm they are jenny. a resident of minnesota, she tells the police she's been in chicago about a month. >> how did you get here? >> a friend dropped me off. >> police september jenny may be trafficked but she's reluctant to open up about her situation. >> how many dates did you have today? how many you got planned to do? >> none. >> i'm not trying to trick you into saying anything. it has nothing to do with why we have you here. we're trying to ascertain right

now if you need any help. that's what we're trying to do because we can put you in touch with people that can help you out. it's simple, right. >> slowly but surely, commander anton begins to break the ice. >> you got kids? >> one. >> learning the woman has left a 3-year-old son behind in minnesota. and that she travels a lot. >> just -- i've been everywhere. vegas, chicago -- detroit -- texas. >> details that deepen his suspicion that she's being trafficked. >> i'm 27. i like to live life. >> yeah, but in order to live a life you have to have a job. people have a misconception. if you don't come from china or thailand or somewhere else you're not a victim of trafficking. if you use threat or coersion you're being trafficked. >> when's the last time you saw your son? >> -- since he was -- >> how long ago was that? >> the manipulation is so great a lot of these pimps won't be in

the state. we have girls that come from texas, minnesota, iowa -- and they won't even be in the state. >> are you supposed to get mad? >> which leads you to believe, how can you be that manipulated but the girls might have something hanging over their head. a lot of these pimps get the girls pregnant and they have the baby and the baby is with the pimp's people or his parents so now you can't get out because you're worried about the baby and they use that as coersion. >> you're going to have to talk to someone right now. not going to be law enforcement, someone that helps people that are in situations like yourself. right? >> with over 20,000 women being sold for sex across chicagoland, sheriff tom dart realizes arrests and jail time did nothing to stem the revolving door of women flooding the system. >> a police officer would arrest someone for prostitution and they would be back on the street before the police officer filled out the paperwork. literally, by the time you were done, they had bonded out and they didn't just go home for the night they would go back out to

the street. >> my name is brenda and your name is -- >> in 2008 one sheriff dart starting hiring counselors like brenda powell to connect women with social services and help them get out of the life. >> the hardst thing for women involved in this is to see they are victims. they don't look at themselves as victims, okay? >> you know how to pimp? >> no. >> brenda is not just a counselor, she's a former prostitute with 25 years in the game. and even though jenny admits nothing brenda can tell she's being pimped out. >> the girlfriend, husband and kids so you're staying with them, right? >> yeah. >> and the girlfriend and the girlfriend's kids and the girlfriend's man, he know, that's not a normal relationship. that's how i used to live with my pimp and my wife-in-laws. we all lived with him and we would do anything for him. >> you can benefit from kicking it with me. >> in the jargon of the underground sex trade, wife-in-laws are the women

working in a pimp stable. the pimp is the daddy and the whole group including children, is called the family. >> but i know how the game go because i was in the game for 25 years. i know that it ain't easy to get out from under this game. a huge rule is not to snitch or talk about what goes on in that family. any systems that come at her trying to damage that family system, is an enemy. i can offer you all kinds of services to help you get a job. >> for now, brenda can see that jenny is not ready to accept the help the women's justice program can offer but brenda has opened a lifeline tonight and she will be there for jenny if and when jenny is ready to change her life. >> give they a hug! thank you. >> thank you. >> but one thing i leave them with, i don't care what happens tonight. later on, give me a call. she's ready to go back. i can stand here with her. just let me know you're okay. and i do get calls from all over

the country and they'll say, hey, you remember me? you talked to me at that place? i know it's late. but you got a minute? and i have to take a minute to listen to her because that's something that no one is doing. no one is listening but i do. i will listen. 6 . >> do your parent know where you are? >> no but they know what i do. i've been on my own since i was like 17. suffering from the flu is a really big deal.

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it's just after 2:00 p.m. in chicago and action inside heats up for cook county investigators. the unit prepares to in on a young woman advertising herself as an out-of-town special. dan plays the decoy and secures a date. >> no problem. i'll head that way. i'm probably like 15 or 20 minutes from there. okay?

>> the out of town target? a self-proclaimed si sicilian, hotty teen, who promised men pleasure for the night for $160 an hour. working as backup, officer bob follows decoy dan to an undisclosed location. >> all right, i'm just going to follow you. >> detective bob explains this in-call operation is a more complicated game of cat and house. the seller of sex is completely in charge. >> they tell you general vicinity where they want you to go. you get to that spot and that intersection and you have to recontact them and then they'll give you the hotel they're at, or motel. >> call girls like alexis don't give up their resize location for two reasons. one, it ensures the john is close and ready to make the deal. and two, it gives pimps or women

time to check them out. >> room 327 and she's watching out the window and she's telling me to pull in. 327. >> within minutes of arriving at the hotel, dan signals that a deal for sex has been made. alexis has offered oral sex and intercourse in exchange for $250. >> danny. >> yes? >> we're coming in. >> officers quickly i.d. alexis suites as 21-year-old shall nell ve last questions of california. with the click of a house, internet site backpage makes it possible for this sacramento college student to sell herself 2,000 miles from home. >> you're under arrest for prostitution. we're taking you in. >> calm and cooperative, she claims she operates alone. >> you use the lobby computer to post? how are you poers something. >> either posting on the that computer or have my best friend post from my iphone or i post

from my iphone. >> a quick search of the internet reveals, thanks to backpage, alexis suites has logged a lot of miles. channel tells them she commutes from california to chicago because there's a higher demand for latino women in the windy city. >> how did you get this money? >> some i made and some i already had. >> we're going to count it, all right? >> that's $200, three, you have $408. >> the sheriff says backpage knows all too well their site is used by pimps and traffickers, not just people looking for massages. >> we have arrested like upwards of 500 people. they've all been in response to ads about massages and the like and guess what? every single one of them have been prostitutes. now, come on. i couldn't conceivably be that lucky that i get all the

prostitutes and keep misses the masseuses. that's inconceivable. >> before the officers transport her to lock-up they tell her to prepare for what will be a long day in jail. it's clear this california girl knows the drill. this is her third arrest in two years. >> we're all set. come on. while being cuffed, she wonders allowed if other women selling sex in the hotel will also be arrested? >> i don't know who they are. i dated a guy that said there was a girl upstairs. their like older women though, i guess. >> we'll check it out. do your parents know where you are in. >> no, they don't know where i'm at but they know what i do. i'm independent and i've been on my own since i was like 17. >> during her walk of shame across the hotel parking lot. she plays the cool customer. but on the ride to lock-up, she begins to tell the police an all too familiar story. struggling to make ends meet on minimum wage, she was lured into

prostitution by a smooth-talking romeo pimp. >> he lied. he sold me a dream and told me that he would make sure i have everything that i need. >> that's how they get you. >> i know. >> they always promise you everything and in reality you get knotting. >> you get nothing. i ended up making 20 or maybe $30,000 for him. >> she says after being beaten badly by her pimp in los angeles, she ran and has been on her own for over a year. >> a lot of times the girls start working and then a pimp approaching them on the street and in her case she's claiming she never worked before. >> dan finds her story especially tragic. >> if a girl chose to work and she's out there working she eventually gets picked up by a pimp that's table but the girls that have never worked before and they start working because they get rekrucruited those aree worst ones to hear. >> while dan heads out to play

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i'm milissa rehberger. the investigators are on the scene of a deadly trail derailment in new york city looking at the speed of the train that commissioned the tracks as well as the crew and their investigation. four people were killed. 67 injured, 11 of them critically. and the car accident in which paul walker was killed is under investigation. walker and the driver of the 2005 porsche carrera gt were pronounced dead. authorities believe speed was a factor. msnbc" undercover" is next.

every day in america, tens of thousands of people go online looking to buy and sell sex. >> yes, are you calling for a date? >> sometimes the voice on the other end of the line is an undercover cop. >> i think it's river and lawrence. >> investigators with the cook county human trafficking task force are en route to a location where an undercover officer has arranged a date for sex with a woman doing in-calls from her motel room. >> once the officer is inside the room with the girl, he'll make the deal. we'll go to the room and he'll let us in and we'll arrest the girl for prostitution. >> police say this particular motel about a mile from the airport, is frequently used as a rendezvous for buyers and sellers of sex. >> okay, we just got text now that he's going to room 307. we'll give him a couple of minutes to get up there. >> inside room 307, the undercover has just made a deal

for sex in exchange for $200. >> you have no identification, right? >> right. >> you sure? >> i swear. >> the young woman has no identification but she tells the detectives that she's been arrested for prostitution before. she tells our producer she doesn't understand what all the fuss is about. >> i don't think we should get in trouble for this at all. like, if my boyfriend gives me money and buys me stuff i don't see a reason why i can't do that. so -- it's the same thing to me. that's it. >> even when you arrest the girls a lot of times they're so well trained, especially the young girls to talk about, no, it's my boyfriend. talking about the pimp or there's no force involved and this and that so when you start peeling back the layers you find abuse or this person is the victim of trafficking. >> detectives are finishing up at the motel when they knows the a curious couple hanging around room 307 and watching them work. police suspect the pair may be connected to the girl in custody. so they decide to introduce

themselves. >> have a seat for a minute. come here. >> the woman has no identification but she tells the police she's 21 and lives in the neighboring state of wisconsin. police learn she's nine months pregnant and has a prior arrest for prostitution. >> how many months pregnant are you? >> i'm due next week. >> she's due next week. >> the couple denies any wrongdoing today and police are unable to connect them to the earlier arrest in room 307. once the male is identified, he's free to go. but police can't release the young woman until she's identified. >> is that your boyfriend you were walking with. >> yeah. >> he's a friend of mine. >> i'm not in a room. >> the woman jenna heck, is uncooperative but was arrested for prostitution a month ago. managers says she's been in the motel for 23 days. >> what room is she staying in. >> taking me to go and get rent

money. >> 208? >> what's up in 208? >> that's not my room. >> there's no proof that jenna is selling sex today. but police say there is actually a high dollar demand for sex with pregnant women. >> she'll get guys. that's what they're into. i don't see it but. >> i'm not lying. >> the young woman is eventually identified by the record of her previous arrest for prostitution. >> i'll meet you guys back over there and you're pregnant so don't be doing anything you're not supposed to do. >> the police offer her the chance to speak with the crisis counselor from the women's justice program but she declines and she's free to go. >> so what time are you looking at? >> back at the hotel it's a little after 4:00 p.m. when business begins to pick up. >> guys are getting off work now. and they're looking for, maybe, something to do before they go home. you know?

you can check us out and we can go from there. follow your lead. >> female undercovers have an unsuspecting john on the line. >> he's in the parking lot. >> now all they have to do is reel him in. >> go ahead. >> turn around, turn around. put your hands up. put your hand behind your back. put your hand behind your back. >> inside the room, the police find a big bear of a man with alcohol on his breath. the detectives say he was hoping to party with all three women. but now, the party is over. >> if you haven't noticed we're running a prostitution sting right now. a resident of indiana, the man tells police he's in town on business. detectives say they see his kind all the time. >> businessman, doctors, lawyers, you know, career guys. >> and we've looked at the demographics and it's across the board. >> we have a guy coming up, guys. economics doesn't make a difference. race doesn't make a difference. >> turn around, police, you're

under arrest, turn around. >> age doesn't make a difference. from 18 all the way to, i think, it was 74 years old we arrested one guy last year 74 years old. he's looking for sex from our undercover girl. the guy gout out of surgery two weeks ago on bypass and he's looking for a girl. >> this officer will take care of you. >> men think about it all the time. it's the manner in which they're going to go to get it and the risk they're willing to take. >> they don't seem to care. a lot of them are married. moist of them are married. they all have jobs and they come and they just want to have good time with someone in private and something discrete and nobody will know about it. >> sam is going upstream. shh! >> police say that most johns don't think too deeply about the consequences of buying sex until they get caught. >> of coursely, a guy is looking

for sex. they don't see the ramifications of paying someone and they don't see the outcome of a traffic victim. they don't -- i don't think they want to look at that. >> if they realize what's going on in this girl's life, her background, the physical and emotional abuse she's getting from the pimp i think they would have a different understanding of this. >> while they can't understand this women feel trapped they can feel a pain deep in their own wallets. >> this is a nice wallet. leather? this is nice. >> it became clear in certain areas of town, the people looking for prostitutes, they better not go there because there's a strong possibility it might be us and if it is, if this whole menu of things we can and will do to you starting with really making you poor. >> this is the fine. if you don't want to pay the fine this is it. >> collectively, we've driven

down the demand definitely in certain areas. it's abundantly clear. all the local people tell thoughts. >> in addition to that we utilize the people we're dragging in to fund all of our programs to try to help the women who have been victimized. the average prostitute turns five to six and do ten tricks a day, right. how much trauma is that for her? i've had some girls say it feels like someone is using the bathroom inside of me. ♪ nothing says, "you're my #1 copilot," like a milk-bone biscuit. ♪ say it with milk-bone. wears off. [ female announcer ] stop searching and start repairing. eucerin professional repair

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♪ ♪ [ female announcer ] with five perfectly sweetened whole grains... you can't help but see the good. clearly the party is over tonight for the men seeking sex for sale but across metro chicago, day or night, men continue the order girls to go with a simple click of a house.

from anal sex to oral sex to three-on-one, investigators say women and underage girls are sold on websites like backpage. >> their entire site is existing so that traffickers and pimps can have a place to sell women. >> i'm fed up and i'm tired. and this is going to stop. >> in 2009, cook county sheriff tom dart, was part of the legal effort to shut down the erotic services section of craigslist. >> just calling to see if you had anything available for today. >> now his troops are taking aim at backpage which he says makes millions off the misery of others. >> if we had a website where people were putting on hits against their spouses, the website is going to say oh o'we're not putting the hits on the spouses. we just set up the website. the fact that these people are doing it and we're then telling the law enforcement, yeah, the problem is by the time we get there the people are already dead. so we'd rather you take the

website down. i mean, come on! >> the cook county task force wants americans to know that online websites keep trafficked women ensnared in a cycle of perpetual violence. >> they kwlooimplike, went craz. he put me in a choke hold. >> while they might view women as tough individuals making bad choices, brenda myers powell sees these women as walking wounded in desperate need of the public's need of empathy and intervention. >> i had some of the girls say it feels like someone is using the bathroom inside of me. >> when did you start doing this? >> the average prostitute turns five to six maybe ten tricks a day. if you calculate five times 365, how many men has she slept with? over 1800 men. how much trauma is that for her? i know about prostitution. i was a prostitute for 25 years. and you have no idea what you're in for. >> brenda's own hard life

lessons learned on the streets of chicago make her the perfect lifeline for girls and i think women in crisis. >> ne in the beginning of my prostitution i was an yaup scale. escorts and strip clubs only. test. at the end of the road i was turning tricks on street corners for $20. >> like many women who fall into prostitution, brenda's own sexual experience began with rape as a child. being molested since i was four or five years old, constantly happening in the households that i lived in, from my grandmother to my aunt's house. every time i thought i was safe i was never safe. >> raised by an alcoholic grandmother in housing projects on chicago's westside, her first exposure to prostitution was right outside her front door. >> me being 9 years old, living in a community where prostitutes

worked in front of our window and looking out the window of the prostitutes getting in and out of the cars with shine, dresses on and very beautiful and asking my grandmother, what are those women doing? and she told me, those women take their panties off and men give them money. and me being relating to that, because men had been taking my panties off and i said to myself, wow, i didn't know they were supposed to give me money. >> brenda says at 14, her grandmother encouraged her to sell herself in order to add money to the family purse. >> 1973, good friday, i proceeded to march on downtown to the gold coast and on the corner and that night i made over $400. and those guys fwhooir i was a minor. they knew that i was young. they paid me more because i was young. >> after 25 years of surviving exploitation and violence, brenda was forced out of the life by a brutal attack where a jeanne almost killed her.

>> i got in the car with a customer who began to beat me up to take his money back after we got through and i tried to get out of the car to get away from him and he started his car up and he was driving off and as i tried to get away from him, my clothes caught hold of the door and he drug me for six blocks and tore all the skin off my body, my face. >> disfigured and near death, brenda was taken to cook county hospital. there, she says, she was pushed to the back of the line for treatment because she was a prostitute. >> i felt worthless. i felt that even people who were supposed to help me, who had took an oath to help people, didn't want to help a prostitute. i wanted to die. >> now married with a family of her own, brenda says she is living proof that working girls like channel can turn their lives around with help and support. >> channel, you are a beautiful,

special girl. i can look in her eyes and talk to hernd i can understand what she's feeling because i've been there. and the questions that come from me are not like the questions that come from the police. >> it takes just a few minutes for brenda to crack channel's tough-girl act. >> i don't even remember what was i was like before this. >> wow. >> i have no idea. i can't even remember. i can't remember my personality or anything like that. >> wow! >> that's the worst part about it is that i won't ever be the same. i'm a different person, if you know what i mean. i know how bad it is. like, i know some girls probably say it and i know some girls are on drugs and doing it but i can honestly saying after meeting so many hos and so many other girls i'm one of the smarter ones and i'm one of the smarter ones, you know. i know that this is ridiculous. i never was never meant to be a ho. >> brenda devotes her time to helping women make the same choice as she did. to leave the life.

her goal, make a human connection and give women hope that there is a real way out. >> give me a real hug. that was a safe hug. >> so that next time, the women with thrown a lifeline, they just might take it. >> thank you for talking to me. >> if i take prostitution away from you, i have to offer you everything in place of that. and when i say everything, i'm talking about a place to stay, food, clothing, all of your basic human needs have to be met. they need to feel safe. relax, okay, sweetie. don't be nervous. >> are you being trafficked? is the money going elsewhere or are you keeping it? >> it's all mine. >> are you sure? >> yes. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms.

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as night falls in chicago, the days stifling heat gives way to thunder and lightning at a cold, hard rain flushing the streets. >> police. how you doing? >> how you doing, sweetheart? >> >> today's investigation by the cook county human trafficking task force continues to uncover women from all across america. >> so what am i going to be under arrest for? >> prostitution. >> we have a girl from minnesota and wisconsin. >> only one girl here from chicago. >> yeah. >> that's it. >> and it says a lot and on the back page, they're not staying in one location and they're moving around. >> the team is about to pack it in when they get one last visit from a woman hoping to trade sex for cash. >> you okay, sweetie? >> don't be nervous or anything, okay? >> 23-year-old jessica is more than 600 miles away from her

home in arkansas. >> is this all you have on? >> yeah. >> this high school graduate tells the police that this is her first run-in with the law. >> have youer been arrested before. >> no. >> ever for anything? >> no. >> really? >> no. >> how long you been work something. >> not that long. >> how long wow been in town? >> for about three weeks. >> where you stay something. >> at a friend's house. >> among her belongings police find condoms, receipts for staying in high-end hotels, and more than $500 in cash. they suspect she may be trafficked but she insists she neighbor trafficked. >> it's my decision. >> when asked about the plight of other women in the life, jessica says it is simply a matter of free will. >> that's what they want to do.

>> the majority of those women for are being controlled. they would never tell you that but i hear things that a lot of times, in interviews, other people don't hear. >> come on in and have a seat. my name is brenda. >> while jessica is noncompliant another woman opens up that she's being held. >> i don't know what's going on but i feel you, okay. >> the 22-year-old tells brenda she's been working for a pimp from negotiating who despite his distance, controls her every move. >> the guy you're with now, how did you meet him, your pimp? -- she was recruited by another woman in new york. her situation was bad anyway, already. >> when she met me i was -- i

don't know how i was going to make rent. >> she said she knew what she was doing was not right but she couldn't get out of it because she didn't have a pot to piss in if she didn't have prostitution. she had family but her family had given up on her a long time ago. >> i've never been able to ask anyone for help. since i was 13, ever. and i was not able to keep up the charade of my parents pretending to be a christian and pretending to be straight and by the time i went to college -- >> the daughter of missionaries, anna dropped out of college and hopped a plane to america, hoping to find work with a modeling agency in new york. but what she found instead turned out to be a trafficking operation. >> and they flew you out to cally and got your hair done and put your on a website and they've been prostituting you out ever since? >> uh-huh. >> do you get any of the money?

>> a little. >> the women that brought her there was threatening her, every day, calling her, we're watching you. you can't move. we have people that will come and get you. >> she's absolutely -- i thought she was going to kill me. she's left me like 27 text messages saying she's going to kill me. >> that's the blank [ bleep ] that they have. that they use to have you brainwashed so you don't go, right? been there. done that, okay? >> after 25 years in the game, brenda knows all too well how hard it is for girls like anna to walk away from their pimps. >> you know a lot of people think this is something they just settle for that but these women are in survival mode. you don't have any peripheral vision. all you see is -- your tunnel vision tells you these people are right here and this is what i see and this is who i am and i

can't get away. >> do you want to be with this pimp? >> and it's not physical bondage, it's mental bondage. if someone can control your mind it can control you. this is what traffickers and pimps and predators do. they control you mentally. >> i don't want anyone to find you, okay? you hear me? but i'll get you somewhere very safe, you hear me? where you'll be safe. where you'll be protected. where no one will bother you. we'll get -- listen, this is what i do for a living. >> at least for tonight, anna's traffickers have met their match in brenda powell. >> i couldn't sleep tonight if i let you go back there. you understand? >> her hard life lessons ring loud and clear in the younger woman's ears. at last, anna sees genuine

opportunity to get away from her pimp and agrees to take refuge in a shelter for girls and women struggling to escape prostitution. >> you'll let me do that? give me a hug. you ain't going nowhere. >> sometimes i believe that things happen for a reason. and it's divine intervention. and i feel that's what just happened right now. >> brenda says there's no guarantees that today's intervention will turn anna's life around but at least for tonight, anna will be safe and warm, securing shelter from the storm of the underground sex trade. >> we're trying to find that piece of them that's left. so we can help them bring it out. they're not a lost cause. you're talking thousands of dollars.

i don't -- from the mean from the mean streets of chicago's south side -- >> don't do me like that, man. >> -- to the affluent suburbs of schaumburg, illinois -- >> let's go. >> -- the underground sex trade is booming in the midwest. >> gang members are no longer selling sex any longer. they're selling children. >> all the young girls were branded. >> they are literally slaves. >> you know what's going to happen then, right? >> but what are the real human costs for the women that service this billion-dollar