Women and children sold for sex and labor and some of them end up dead.An Oklahoma native says she was she was smuggled to Las Vegas and sold for sex in California, Florida, North Caroline, New York and many other states across the country.
This week advocates from Oklahomans Against Trafficking Humans (OATH) and Stop Child Trafficking Now are meeting for a conference in Norman, Oklahoma to better educate parents, law enforcement and advocates against human trafficking.
Sex slaves trapped in a tragic reality with their captors selling their bodies.
"I thought I was going to die. I thought my body was going to be a Jane Doe," says “Jules”.
The survivor still living in fear doesn’t want to reveal her true identity.
"The traffickers I dealt with are not your local pimp they are bigger than me and you," says “Jules.”
So big it’s known to work like a mob, organized crime where woman, teen girls, toddlers are smuggled and used as commodity.
"There are pedophiles that want really small children," says “Jules”.
An underground market that “Jules” says is booming right here in this country.
"Organ trafficking, sex trafficking, illegal adoptions, identity theft also used as labor factories," says “Jules”.
It’s a business and the younger the women, the more money they’re worth. “Jules” was 19 when she was trafficked for sex but she says she could be sold as a 13-year-old girl.
"I told this one client the truth and he said I bought $5,000 worth to be with a minor and that's what I want. It wasn't about 'oh my goodness you've been trafficked let me help you'. None of the clients,” says “Jules”.
The only escape was to run away and countless times she would be punished or beaten with crowbar, yet she would still run.
"[They] put me in a bathtub filled up with ice and naked that way they wouldn't see the bruises," says “Jules”.
However, the real torture came from watching what happened to others.
"They would chain her to a bed and have a line of men raping her and beating her and we had to watch and that was a sign to let us know that you don't disobey me," says “Jules”.
"I remember as a child in Sunday school, 'oh I would never want to be in the fires of hell' to me this was the fires of hell.”
So “Jules” says it was only God that could help her escape.
"I am still surviving I don't think I could ever finish surviving and Oklahoma is my home and I want to share my awareness," says “Jules”.
The survivor says she was a foster child but the 50 to a thousand teen girls and women she met were recruited weren’t always people with a rough childhood.
“Jules” says many traffickers will pose as talent agents pretending to cast musicians, actors and models.
She also cautions teens what they post on Myspace, Facebook, online chat rooms and blogs.
"'I am angry with my mom cause she made me do the dishes cause it wasn't my turn’ and then that is a sign for any trafficker or pimp to go online and I understand what you are talking about. Do you want to go chill at my place and she'll say sure where do you live?” says “Jules”.
America’s underground sex trade is considered a $3 billion industry.
Oklahoma is lawmakers are considering making human trafficking a felony if convicted it would be no less than a 10-year-prison sentence.
