rescuing the occasional woman or tagging the random john. our investigations are on the street, on the phone, in cyberspace. special prosecutor jack blakey s message if you re selling women in chicago, beware. wiretapping changes the game. it allows us to hear the traffickers and find out who s in charge and work our way up the chain of command. blakey helped write the illinois safe children s act, a law that gives local police the ability to track pimps and gang members using wiretaps normally reserved for federal drug cases. and that particular act is the reason that we re here today. the new law resulted in the prosecution of the largest human trafficking case in illinois history. what we have seen in recent cases, in one particular case, all the young girls were branded. they are literally slaves. prosecutor lou longhutano says with the help of wiretaps ten defendants now face up to 30 years in prison. we ve got telephone
i m a manly man. just relax. oh, my god, man. take it easy. the last guy was a dub for a [ bleep ] and a suck. i swear to god, man. don t do me like that. for this buyer tonight s price tag will far exceed the $20 he was offering amy. please don t do me like that, man. to deter men who buy women, chicago pd now seize their cars and fine them up to $2,000. it s serious. the girls should not be the only ones that are suffering here. the guys should suffer as well. virtually every one of them try to claim they were innocent, and virtually every one of them acknowledge that it was a dumb thing to do after they were arrested. yeah, at some point they re going to have to explain to a loved one or whatever that you know, we have to go get our car. this right here, this is for you. within a matter of a few hours, the trafficking unit has arrested eight johns and impounded six vehicles to the tune of $12,000.
chicago pd sergeant tracy walker will lead today s investigation. the goal is to recover any juveniles who are out here being forced into prostituting. she says the real victims of prostitution are the girls and young women trapped in the life. they re not doing it because they want to. they re being controlled. every day they wake up to someone who is forcing them to sell their bodies. shortly after 1:00 p.m. the team rolls out to set up a hotel sting downtown. even in the broad daylight police expect the action to be brisk. it s a 24/7 business. daytime, night, doesn t matter. they re out here. undercover officers set up shop in adjoining hotel rooms and immediately begin trolling the internet for women advertising sex for sale. right now we re looking for specifically out calls. out call means they will come to me. in call means i would go to them
undercover vehicles roll out on the track and spot the players. eyeball on that white girl. she s walking north on cicero. she s also walking with a male. it doesn t take long, however, for these seasoned players to spot the police. we ve got some guys out here. detectives suspect this man in the red cap is a lookout, hired to tip off working girls when the heat is on. this is like a cat and mouse game. she s walking away. with their cover blown on this corner, the team breaks into smaller groups, moving east and south. there goes one of our undercovers right there. the girl right now is crossing 16th on the way to his car. all right. she s getting in his car. a girl hopped in the car. we re following them now. hey, sweetheart. i knew that was you. you didn t know it was the police? when he grabbed my titties i knew that. i would never touch your titties. honey, settle down. she s in custody. 42-year-old ella is sadly typical of the women working chi
people are looking for someone that is vulnerable and looks like they are in need. the offers are made on the street. you are like well, what am i going to do tonight? am i go to sleep in this park or go with this guy. we are not criminals. chicago s coalition for the homeless founded a survivors group to help change laws in illinois. the traffickers that made us victims need to be held accountable. survivors lobbied lawmakers in springfield. right today, right now somebody s baby is being sold like a piece of meat and they don t even know it. few know better than majors, a woman with over 300 arrests, how difficult it is to get out of prostitution once you have been sucked in. nobody told me the consequences would last 33