can to make sure these bars are out of business. i'm meteorologist dominica davis with an update on the winter storm hitting the country. your warningngs are shrinking out to the midwest. but we are seeing the snow push into the northeast. blizzard warnings in effect until midnight for northern illinois and northwestern indiana. that will officially ends as the snow is clearing west to east out of chicago. heavy snow in detroit, buffalo now, syracuse picking up on the

snow and new york city also seeing snow. boston, portland you will see the snow after midnight. it will be heavy through the day tomorrow. maine rain snow mix changing over at about 4:00 in new york. it will be a slippery commute for most. and a snowy commute up in new england's. snow through new england. and along the i-95 corridor in new york. snow totals are expected to come in over a foot in parts of boston. new york, we could see close to six inches with a coating of ice. that's a look at your weather. i'm meteorologist dominica davis. >> on the streets of chicago and all across america, the business of sex for sale is booming, fueled lie the internet. >> this is not a problem that just happens in another country. >> we have girls come from texas. we have girls come from minnesota, girls come from iowa. >> what am i going to be up for?

>> prostitution. >> in a world where girls and young women take all the risk, pumps and traffickers keep all the cash. >> it's not physical bondsage. it's mental bondsage. this is what traffickers and pumps and predators do. >> tonight, msnbc goes under cover with the cook county human trafficking task force. >> let's get them out of here, quick. >> as they battle the buyers and sellers 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. >> relarks okay, sweetie. >> okay. >> don't be nervous or anything, okay. >> 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. and cook county, chicago s a transportation hub iftsz' a convention hub. and it's ripe for this type of crime. >> how did it go in court. >> illinois state's 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 really think we are 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 lands 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 pumps who exploit them. >> i'd like people to think about that this could be their daughter. >> cook county sheriff 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 streets of chicago. >> every single one of these girls at one point was someone's little child. at one point was held in someone's arms and thought, you know, this child is going to be something. at one point int that child actually thought when they were in kindergarten, first grade this they were going to be something. these are real humans, no different than our children. the reason they are doing what they are doing now has a long history and it is a ugly history and people need to understand that. >> the task force in cook county is one of the more aggressive

local local enforcement efforts aimed at rescuing women and arresting the traffickers and johns who exploit them. >> mike anton takes the lead on today's investigation is that what we're doing, we're doing reversals, prostitution stings. our goal is to try the girls that are being trafficked and pumpland out on the internet. we're going to answer ads and the girls will come to us. we have a couple of dates set up. we are goss going to answer other adds and go to them. we are going to have two teams. we are also going to post adds of our own and have men answer the adds and come to the hotel. >> today's operation is comprehensive, attacking both the supply and the demand sides of the sex for sale equation and focusing primarily on the digital street corner that is back page.com. >> first of aushlg there is hundreds of sites out there. back page has taken a hit

because they are a largest. they are making millions of dollars off of. that they know what's going on, they have acknowledged what's going on and they are not going to make an effort to stop it because they are making so much money. >> the cook county task force also includes crisis counsellors like brenda powell, a former frost prostitute who now works the other side of the street, reaching out and offering guidance to girls young women trapped in the life. >> in the 25 years i was in prostitution i was shot five times, stabbed 13 times, beat, kidnapped, held against my will. all those things happen when you are in prostitution. >> every time somebody pulls a gun to your head, your chances are less. i understand where they come from, who these women are. who better to send in and talk to them than someone who has been through it? that's what i do. >> it is a little after 1:00 p.m. when the task force sets up in a hotel near o'hare airport.

this strip of hotels and moettlezs is a well-known hot spot for the business of sex for sale in cook county. >> it's this one. >> male undercovers in one room begin making contact with women advertising sex for sale on back page.com. >> hi, this is tim. i'm look its at your ad on back page. i'm hoping you are available sometime today. >> would you be willing to come to me? i'm at a hotel in schiller park. >> meanwhile in a room across the hall, female undercovers post fake ads for sex on back page and lure johns to the hotel. >> are you going to come visit me. >> what time are you looking at? okay, i charge $90, frank, for a sul service for one hour, is that okay with you. >> he is calling for a date tonight, wants to know if i do greek, a common term for anal sex. >> i'm in the o'hare area. >> okay, can't wait to see you. >> female undercovers make

cochran contact with an eager john. >> right now, he's going to be here in two minutes. >> meanwhile, a male in the room across the hall also has a subject on the way. >> you are not the police. that's why i'm going to give you my number. i don't want a bunch of dudes kicking down my door. >> thet team scrambles for two simultaneous takedowns. >> feast or famine, we'll have nothing, make the phone calls, put the ads on and in the space of a half hour we have five guys show up. it's critical we get them out of here immediately. >> the arresting officers in the next room eyeballing the john's approach in the hallway and wait forth a hit on the panic pager to signal that the deal for sex has been made. [ beep ] >> police. get your hands out of your

pocket. you are under arrest. >> the stunned john is quickly cuffed and hustled into a processing room. >> get him out of here, quick. >> while officers reset the trap for a call girl who is only moments away. [ beep ] >> how are you doing, honey, police. >> police. >> oh! >> have a seat on the bed. >> all right. we're the police. okay, just so you know, you are under arrest. >> okay. >> okay. >> the team now has two in the bag. and their operation has only just begun. >> i don't think we should get in trouble for this at all. >> it's what they want to do. next. ♪ expected wait time: 55 minutes. your call is important to us. thank you for your patience. waiter!

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>> police, get your hands out of your pockets. you are under arrest. investigators are conducting undercover prostitution stings in a hotel near o'hare airport. >> get them out of here. quick, hurry up. >> the team quickly make two arrests that illustrate both sides of the sex for sale equation. >> take a seat in this chair. >> a 55-year-old john is snard in the first trap. and a 27-year-old call girl is arrested just moments later. >> police, police. >> oh. >> have a seat on the bed. >> 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. >> male white. >> a married man on his way home from work. the john seems to be on the verge of tears. he tells police that today is his first time buying sex. >> i got up early today, and i

wanted to experience -- >> once arrested, police say a man like this has only one concern, keeping his wife in the dark about his so-called experiment. >> she is going to have to finds out? >> what? >> is she going to find out. >> we'll talk about that later. >> they have got a lot to lose. most of them are married. most of them have children. they are doing this -- of course they are going to say it's the first time. but there is no way it's the first time because most people don't get caught the first time they are doing anything wrong. and they are all apologetic and they are sorry, but they are sorry they got caught. >> in cook county the law gives johns like this a choice, fight the case in court or pay a steep fine and have the arrest wiped from their for the record. >> we'll talk about night we have the ability to write tickets to these guys. it costs them $500, we tow their car, another $500. it ends up being about $1170.

the money fined goes to the women's sheltering program. all these guys always want to pay in cash. >> we have agreed to obscure the identity of the johns arrested today. >> it is what it is. i don't judge. >> i've had discussions with some of the men we've brought into custody. it's the abundantly clear to me that they are going to continue to do this, and i have no way of knowing what they are going to do, but they are certainly not coming in our area anymore. we do it so often that a lot of people are trig twice about what they are doing. it's not worth the downside of having their entire life thrown out there. >> in the two years since cook county police started slapping fines on johns they have generated more than $100,000 for the women's justice program. and they have yet to encounter a repeat offender. detectives now turn their attention to the woman in custody. we'll call her jenny. >> what kind of tats you got.

>> a snake right here. >> a rntd of minnesota, jenny tells police she has been in chicago about a month. >> how did you get here. >> a friends job dropped me off. >> police suspect jenny maine may be trafficked but she is reluctant to open up about her situation. >> how many dates did you have today. >> you are my first one. >> how many do you have planned to do. >> none. >> i'm not trying to trick you into saying things. that's not going to do why we've got you here. we're trying to ascertain if you need help that's what we're trying to do because we can put you in touch with people who can help you out. simple, right. >> slowly but surely the officer begins to break the ice. >> do you have any kids. >> one. >> learning that she left a three-year-old son behind in minnesota and she travels a lot. >> i've been everywhere, vegas, detroit, texas. >> details that deepen his suspicion she is being trafficked. >> i'm 27, i like to live a

life. >> in order to live a life, you have to have a job. >> people have a misconception if you are not coming out of the country, china, thighland or somewhere else you are not a victim of trafficking. if you use threat or coercion, you are being trafficked. when was the last time you saw your son? how long ago was that. >> a month ago. >> the manipulation is so great a lot of the pumps won't even be in the state. we have girls come from texas, girls come from minnesota, girls come from iowa. and they won't even be in the state. >> how are you supposed to be in the state. which leads you to believe, how can you be so manipulated? the girls might have something hanging over their head. a lot of the pumps will get the girl pregnant, and tough baby and now you can't get out because you are worried about the baby. they will use that as coercion. you are going to have to talk to someone right now, not law enforcement, it's someone who

helps people in situations like yourselves. >> sheriff tom dart realized 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 again. >> my name is brenda. and your name is? >> in 2008, sheriff dart start hiring counsellors, like brenda, to connect women with social services and help them gut get out of the life. >> the hardest thing for women who are involved is to see they are victims. they don't look as themselves as victims. you never had a pump? >> no. >> brenda is not just a counsellor. she is a former prostitute with 25 years in the game. even though jenny admits nothing, brenda can tell she's being pumped out. her girlfriends, husband, her

kids. she is going to be staying with your fwirl friend and her husband and her kids. the girlfriend, the girlfriend's kids, and the girlfriend's man. that's not a normal relationship. that's how i lived with my pump, and my wife in laws. >> in the jargon of the underground sex trade wife in laws are the women working in a pump stable. the pump is the daddy. and the whole group is called the family. >> it ain't easy to get up out of this game. >> a huge value not to snitch. a huge rule is not to 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. i can help you get a job. >> for now, brenda can see jenny is not ready to 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 me a hug. >> thank you. >> uh-huh one thing that i do leave them with. i don't care what happens tonight, later on, give me a call. she's ready to go back, i can stan here with her, just let me know you are okay. and i do get calls from all over the country. and they will say hey, 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 no one is doing. no one is listening. but i do. i will listen. >> do your parents know where you are? >> no, they don't know where i'm at. they know what i do though. i'm 21 and i am greene. i've been out since i was 17.

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>> no problem. i'm going to head that way. i'm probably 15, 20 minutes from there. okay? >> the out of town target, a self proclaimed is a sillian latina hotty alexis sweets, who promises pleasure and delight for the night for $160 an hour. 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 as more complicated game of cat and mouse. the seller of sex is completely in charge. >> they tell you a general vicinity where they want you to go. you get to that spot or that intersection, and then you have to recontact them. and then they will give you the hotel that they are at or motel. >> call girls like alexis don't give up their precise location for two reasons.

one it ensures the john is close and ready to make the deal. two, it gives pumps or women time to check them out. >> it's room 327. and she is watching out the windows. she saw me pull in. 327. within minutes of arriving at the hotel, dan signals that a deal for sex has been made. alexis has hovered oral sex and intercourse in exchange for $250. >> danny? >> yes. >> we're coming in. >> officers quickly id alexis sweets as a 21-year-old from california. >> you are on back page? you posted yourself? >> yes, sir. >> with a click of a mouse, internet website back page makes it possible for that sacramento college student to sell herself 2,000 miles from home. >> you are under arrest for prostitution. we're going to take you in. >> calm and cooperative, chanel claims she operates alone. >> using the lobby computer to

post? how are you posting? >> either posting on that computer or i have my best friends post from her iphone or my post from my iphone. >> a quick search of the internet reveals alexis sweets has logged a lot of miles. chanel tells police she commutes from chicago from sacramento because there is a higher demands for latina women in the windsy city. >> how did you get this money. >> some of it i had and some of it i made. >> we're going to doesn't it. 200, 3 -- you have 408 dollars. can you count that. >> the sheriff knows all too well their website is used by pumps and traffic he is, not just people looking for massages. >> we have arrested 500 people, they have all been in response to ads for massages and the like. every single one of them have

been prostitutes. come on, i couldn't conceivably be that lucky that i get all the prostitutes, keep missing the mass uses, it's inconceivable. before the first transport chanel to lockup 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. >> while being cuffed, chanel wonders allowed if other women selling sex in the hotel will also be arrested. >> do you know who they are? >> i don't know who they are. i don't know them. i just had dated a guy who said there is a girl upstairs. they are older women i guess. >> we'll check it out. >> do your parents know where you are? >> they don't know where i'm at. they know what i do. i'm 21, i'm grown, i've been doing it since i was 17. >> during her walk of shame across the hotel parking lot, chanel plays the cool customer. but on the ride to lock up, she begins to tell police an all too

familiar story, struggling to make ends meet on minimum wage she was lured into prostitution by a smooth talking reomeo. >> he lied. sold me a dream and toll me he would make sure i would have everything that i need. >> that's how they get you. >> i know. >> they promise everything and in reality you get nothing. >> i ended up making 20, maybe $30,000 for him. >> chanel says after being beaten badly by her pump in los angeles she ran and has been on her own over a year. >> a lot of times the girls start working and then a pump approaches them on the street. in her case she is claiming she had never worked before. >> dan finds chanel's story especially traj snik if a girl chose the work and she is out there working and eventually gets picked up by a pump, that's terrible. but the girls that have never worked before and they start because they get recruited those are the worst once to hear.

>> while dan heads out to play decoy, chanel will lose her call girl cool and get a much needed reality check. >> have a seat for a minute. come here. come here. >> it's okay. how many months pregnant are you? i'm due like next week. >> she's due next week. if a denture were to be put under a microscope, we can see all the bacteria that still exists on the denture, and that bacteria multiplies very rapidly. that's why dentists recommend cleaning with polident everyday. polident's unique micro clean formula works in just 3 minutes, killing 99.99% of odor causing bacteria. for a cleaner, fresher, brighter denture everyday.

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>> the chicago area is getting battered by a winter snowstorm. more than 15 inches has fallen in some parts of the yir. more than 1,000 flights have been canceled at o'hare airport. thousands are without power in illinois. the chicago mayor spoke a short time ago saying this is a storm for the record books. >> this is a historic snowfall in a 24 hour period. it's going to be one of the top three in the stiff chicago. >> a coast guard rescue helicopter mehdi vacced a 51-year-old woman off a carnival cruise ship off of galveston

texas. the woman was having problems breathing. she is now in stable condition. >> last-second goal line interception sealed a super bowl victory for the new england patriots who beat the seattle seahawks 28-24. tom brady was named super bowl mvp. now, it's back to nsnbc under cover. >> hi, is megan there. >> every day in america, tens of thousands of people go on line looking to buy and sell sex. >> yes, are you calling for a date. >> but 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 unz cover 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 will make the deal. we'll go to the room. he will let us in and then we will arrest the girl for prostitution. >> police say this particular motel b a mile from the airport s frequently used as a rendezvous for buyers and sellers of sex. >> we just got a text now that he is going to room 307. we'll give him a couple minutes to get up there. >> inside room 307, the uncover has just made a deal for sex in exchange for $200. >> you have no identification, right. >> no. >> are you sure. >> the young woman has no identification but she tells detectives that she has been arrested for prostitution before. then she tells our producer that 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 the reason like a stranger 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 are so well trapds, especially the young ones to talk about, no, it's my boyfriends, or talking about the pump, or there is no force. when you start peeling back the layers you find this is a victim of trafficking. >> police notice a curious couple hang around room 307 and watching them work. police suspect they may be connected to the girl in custody and zooiz decide to introduce themselves. >> come here. have a seat. >> the woman has no identification she tells police she is 21 and lives in the neighboring state of wisconsin. police learn she is nine months pregnant and has a prior arrest for prostitution. >> how many months pregnant are you. >> i'm due like next week. >> she's due next week.

>> okay. >> 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 rooi free to go. but police can't release the young woman until she's identified. >> is that your boyfriend that you were walking with? yeah a friends of mine. >> who rented the room. >> aim he not in the room. >> the woman, jenna, is uncooperative. the manager says she has been in the motel 23 days. >> what room is she staying in? >> 208. >> he was taking me to go and get money. >> where is your key. >> i don't have a key. >> who is up in 208? >> it's not my room. >> there is no proof jenna is selling sex today, but police say there is a high dollar demands for sex with pregnant woman. >> she'll get guys. that's what they are kinds of into. i don't see it, but --

>> i'm not buying it. >> what else did you get arrested for. the young woman is eventually identified by record of her previous arrest for prostitution. >> i'll meet you over there. and you are pregnant, don't be doing anything you are not supposed to do. >> police offer her a chance to speak with a counsellor from the women's justice program. but she declines and she is free to go. >> okay. what time are you looking at. >> back at the hotel of the' a little after 4:00 p.m. when business begins to pick snup guys are getting off work now. and they are looking for maybe something to do before they go ow home. you know, you can check us out and then we can go from there. we'll follow your lead. >> female uncovers have an unsuspecting john on the line. >> he is in the parking lot. >> now all they have to do is reel him in. >> go ahead. >> turn around. >> turned around. >> turnd turn around. put your hands behind your back. >> inside the room, police find a big bear of a man with alcohol

on his breath. 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 is in town on business. detectives say they see his kinds all the time. >> yes, sir. >> businessman, doctors, lawyers, you know, career guys. >> and we've looked at the demographics. it's across the board. >> all right. we have got a guy coming up, guys. >> economics doesn't make a difference. race doesn't make a difference. >> turn around. >> police, you are 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 is looking for sex from our undercover girl. i mean the guy got out of surgery two weeks ago on bypass surgery and he is out looking for a girl. >> this officer is going to take care of you and tell you what's

going to happen. >> sex sells. men think about it all the time. it's just the manner they are willing to go about obtaining it and the risk they are willing to take. >> they don't seem to care. most of them are married, most have families. most are businessmen. they all have jobs and they come and just want to have a good time with someone in private and having discrete and nobody is going to know about it. >> the salmon is going upstream. >> police say that most johns don't think too deeply about all the consequences of buying sex until they get caught. >> police. let me see your hands. >> they are looking for one thing. obviously, a guy is going to pay for sex he is looking for that, he is looking for sex. they don't see the ramifications of paying someone, they don't see the outcome of a traffic victim. i don't think they want to look at that. if they realized what's going on in this girl's life, her back ground, the physical and emotional abuse she is getting now from the pump, i think they

would have a different understanding of what it is. >> while police may not be able to make johns feel the pain of women trapped in the undergrounds sex trade they can make them feel a pain deep in their own wallets. >> this is a nice wallet. is this leather? is this a leather wallet? this is nice. >> it became clear in certain areas of town, if you are looking for prostitutes, you better not go there because there is a strong poltsz it might be us. if it is, we have this menu of things we will be willing to do to you.

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>> put your hands behind your back. >> cheerl the party over tonight for these men seeking sex for sale. but across metro chicago, day or night, men continue to order girls to go with a simple click of a mouse. from anal sex to oral sex, to three on one. investigators say women and underaged girls are sold on website like back page. >> their entire site is existing so that traffickers and pumps 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 craig's list. >> calling to see if you had

anything available for today. >> now his troops are taking aim at back page, which he says makes millions off the misery of others. >> if we had a website where people were putting on hits against their spouses, what, the website is going to sit there and say, well, we're not putting the hits on the spouse, we just set up the website. the fact these people are doing it. and we are then telling law enforcement. the problem is by the time we get there the people are dead already. so we'd rather you take the wents down. i mean, come on. >> the cook county task force wants americans to know that online website keep trafficked women ensnared in a cycle of perpetual violence. >> they went crazy. this dude put me in a choke hold. >> while most might view young women as tough individuals making bad choices, brenda powell sees these women as the walking wounded, in desperate beneath need of the public's empathy and intervention.

>> i have had girls say it feels like someone is using the bathroom inside of me. when did you start doing this regularly. the average prostitute turns five to six, maybe ten tricks a day, right? if you calculate five times 365, how many men has she slept with? over 1-800-men. how much trauma is that for her? i know about prostitution. i was a pros stutd for 25 years. you have no idea what you are in for. >> brenda's own hard life lessons learned on the streets of chicago make her the perfect lifeline for girls and young women in crisis. >> in the beginning of my prostitution i was upscale prostitute, escorts and strip clubs, only the best. and at the end of the road, i was turning tricks on the street corner 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 4

or 5 years old constanting happening in the household i lived in from my grand another to my aunt's house. every time i thought i was safe, every never safe. raised by an alcoholic grandmother in housing projects on chicago's west side, her first exposure to prostitution was right outside her front door. >> me being nine years old living in a community where prostitutes worked in front of our windows, looking out the window at the prostitutes getting in and out of the cars, having shiny dresses on, being beautiful and asking my gran mother what are those women doing, and she told me those women take their panties off and men give them money. me relating to that because men had been taking my panties off, and i said wow i didn't know they was supposed to give me money. >> she says at 19, her gran mother encouraged her to sell

herself to add money to the household purse. >> 1973, i proceeded down to the corner. that night i made over $400. they knew i was a minor. they knew 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 after a brutal attack by a john almost killed her. >> i got in a 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 through 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 chanel can turn their lives around with help and support. >> chanel, you are a beautiful, special girl. >> thank you. >> i can look in her eyes. i can talk to her, and 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 chanel's tough girl act. >> i don't even remember what i was like before this. >> wow. >> i have no idea. i can't remember my personal 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.

you know what i mean. i know how bad it is. i know some girls probable bheep say it or know some girls are on drugs and do it. i can honestly say after meeting so many hos and so many girls, i'm one of the smarter ones, i'm one of the smarter ones. i know this is ridiculous, i never was meant to be a ho. >> today brenda devotes her time to helping women make the same choice as she did, to leave the life. >> give me a hug. >> her goal, make a human connection and give women hope that there is a real way out. >> give me a real hug. no fake you go. >> so that next time the women are thrown a life line, they just might take it is. >> thank you for talking to me. >> if i take prostitution away from you, i have to offer you everything in place of that. 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. >> do you want to have a family of your own some day? >> relax, okay, sweetie. >> okay. >> deent be nervous or anything, are you keeping it? >> it's all mine. >> are you sure? >> yes. expected wait time: 55 minutes. your call is important to us. thank you for your patience. waiter! vo: in the nation, we know how it feels when you aren't treated like a priority. we do things differently. we'll take care of it. vo: we put members first... join the nation. thank you. ♪ nationwide is on your side ♪ rushing to work all those years, ♪ from time in the service... to different jobs... ♪

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as night falls in chicago, the day's stifling heat gives way to thunder and lightning and a cold, hard rain flushing the streets. >> police. how you doing? >> how you doing, sweetheart? >> put your clothes on, sweetie. >> 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 had a girl from minnesota, we had a girl from wisconsin. only one girl here from chicago, we think. >> yeah, that's it.

>> and it says a lot for the girls putting themselves on the back page. they're not staying in one location. they're moving around and they have people around them moving them around, too. >> the team is about to pack it in when they get one last visit from a woman hoping to trade sex for cash. >> relax, okay, sweetie? >> okay. >> don't be nervous or anything, okay? >> 23-year-old jessica sansui 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. >> ever been arrested before? >> no. >> ever? for anything? >> no. >> really? >> no. >> how long you been working? >> not that long. >> how long wow been in town? >> for about three weeks. >> where are you staying at? >> at a friend's house. >> among jessica's belongings police find condoms, receipts for stays in high-end hotels, and more than $500 in cash. they suspect she may be trafficked but she insists that

she is acting alone. >> can i just ask you, are you being trafficked or is the money going elsewhere -- are you keeping the money? >> it's all me. >> are you sure? >> yes. my decision. >> when asked about the plight of other women in the life, jessica says it is simply a matter of free will. . >> it's what they want to do. >> the majority of those women who 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 in, have a seat. my name is brenda. >> while jessica is noncompliant another young woman opens up to brenda, revealing she is in crisis. >> i don't want to go on tv. if anyone sees my face, i could get killed. >> okay. because 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 new york 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 had like $20 to my name. >> she said she knew what she was doing was not right but she could not get out of it because she didn't have a pot to piss in if she didn't have prostitution. yes, 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, pretending to be straight and by the time i went to college everything fell apart.

>> 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 cali, got your hair done, put you on a website, and they've been prostituting you out ever since? >> uh-huh. >> do you get any of the money? >> the women that brought her there was threatening her, every day calling her, telling her, we're watching you. you can't move. we have people that will come and get you. >> she's absolutely clinically insane. 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 brain [ muted ]. that's the brain [ muted ] that they have, that they use to have you brainwashed so that 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 actually, these women are in survival mode. >> just tired of being scared all the time. >> 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 can 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 will get -- listen. this is what i do for a living. okay? >> at least for tonight, anna's traffickers have met their match in brenda powell. >> i could not 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. >> i just want you to be safe, okay? >> 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. >> do you want to let me do that? that's all i wanted to hear. give me a hug. you ain't going nowhere. you know, 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. the best of what's the best of them. so we can help them bring it out. because they're not a lost cause. in the suburbs of orlando, florida, and all across america, the business of sex for sale is ruining young lives. >> i've heard a lot of people say that prostitution is a victimless crime. but it's not a victimles