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Human Trafficking: It's in your town! · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Meet a typical team from a wealthy Virginia suburb. Was
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Speaker 1: about thirteen. He started off as a nice guy, but
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Speaker 1: her dream boyfriend turned into a nightmare. He took me up.
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Speaker 1: He started off as a nice guy. Courtney found herself
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Speaker 1: caught in the dangerous and terrifying world of human sex trafficking.
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Speaker 1: This is Crime Stories with Nancy Grace at thirteen, when
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Speaker 1: she should have been worried about homework, she was being branded,
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Speaker 1: bought and sold by a friend of her drug addicted father.
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Speaker 1: I was scared he might kill me, or he might
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Speaker 1: kill my dad. See all and new threats like that,
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Speaker 1: and he always had guns. They've been called all sorts
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Speaker 1: of names over the years, from ladies of the night
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Speaker 1: to prostitute, but when they're under age, police now have
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Speaker 1: a different name for them. We have come a long
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Speaker 1: way in recognizing that they's children's are a victim human trafficking.
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Speaker 1: What is it? Is it real? We hear about it
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Speaker 1: all the time, and now reports surfacing that little Maddie
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Speaker 1: McCann may have been a victim of child trafficking, human trafficking.
1:14
Speaker 1: This is Crime Stories. I'm Nancy Grace, Thank you for
1:16
Speaker 1: being with me. Very special guests joining me today. In
1:20
Speaker 1: addition to the Duke, Alan Duke joining me out of
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Speaker 1: l A, Shane die Dirt joining me. Shane, thank you
1:28
Speaker 1: so much for being with thus he is joining us
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Speaker 1: from give me your formal title, Shane, I'm the assignment editor,
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Speaker 1: social media web producer c w N and Memphis, Tennessee. Shane,
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Speaker 1: you have had a lot of experience in covering human
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Speaker 1: trafficking cases. Tell me what's happening. And I think just
1:52
Speaker 1: recently the Dancy Bureau of Investigations brand a three day
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Speaker 1: steaming limpus where they set up ads on back page
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Speaker 1: dot Net, they set a badge on credu lists. They
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Speaker 1: rounded up forty two men who showed up after setting
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Speaker 1: up what they thought were meetings with underage kids for
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Speaker 1: Saxon hotel rooms. Even a local leader, Ron Garrison, was
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Speaker 1: caught up in this. He was the head of matter,
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Speaker 1: the master ASW and Memphis. He just took an offered
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Speaker 1: plea which I've never heard in the case like this,
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Speaker 1: and played guilty. Well, hold on, let's say what an
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Speaker 1: Alfred play is. And Alfred play is based on a
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Speaker 1: case State versus Alfred in which Alfred essentially played no contest.
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Speaker 1: It's the equivalent of a guilty plea, except you never
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Speaker 1: come out and say I did it. You basically are
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Speaker 1: saying I don't admit guilt, but I'm pleading guilty under
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Speaker 1: Alfred because the outcome will be better if I play
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Speaker 1: guilty then go to trial and get a worse sentence.
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Speaker 1: That's basically what an Alfred play is. Okay, So this
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Speaker 1: guy with the transit system plays guilty to what exactly Alfred. Yes,
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Speaker 1: if he stays out of trouble for six months, it'll
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Speaker 1: go away. He lost his job obviously. You know, human
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Speaker 1: trafficking goes beyond just underage sex. Okay, human trafficking is
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Speaker 1: not only underage sex, but it's a lot more explained
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Speaker 1: that for me, Shane. We talked about Maddie McCann. There
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Speaker 1: are other young people who will be picked up wherever
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Speaker 1: they're at online, at them all or whatever, and then
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Speaker 1: they will be sold in what a modern day slavery world.
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Speaker 1: They may go somewhere in a house and being a
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Speaker 1: any they you know, they'll be have awful hours, you know,
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Speaker 1: basically a two hours a day. They're beaten by some people,
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Speaker 1: they're threatened, their families are threatened if they they feel
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Speaker 1: like there's no way to get out of it. They
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Speaker 1: get so beaten down there say that they feel like
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Speaker 1: they have no self worth, and people don't realize this
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Speaker 1: is going on right under our own noses. As a
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Speaker 1: matter of fact, the biggest hub of human trafficking, including
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Speaker 1: children specifically, believe it or not, is the Atlanta Hartsville
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Speaker 1: Jackson Airport because there's so many international flights there. There
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Speaker 1: have been times when passengers and or flight attendants notice
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Speaker 1: something off, like there'll be a man or a woman
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Speaker 1: with a child and they see something is just not
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Speaker 1: right with that real interaction, and it turns out they
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Speaker 1: turn them in. It's human trafficking. Let's talk about that, Shane,
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Speaker 1: who's the servile Airlines are trained to spot this. A
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Speaker 1: lot of times. It could just be a person a
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Speaker 1: child on the plane who gives just a look to
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Speaker 1: one of to prove me. They might get up and
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Speaker 1: go to the bathroom and pass a note that they
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Speaker 1: need help, or they might leave a note in the
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Speaker 1: magazine and put it on the back of it the
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Speaker 1: scene that's in front of them. I've talked to stewardess
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Speaker 1: and pilot. We see him at the beginning and in
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Speaker 1: the flights standing up and looking in. Yes, they're greeting us,
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Speaker 1: but they're also looking for signs of you know, is
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Speaker 1: there any traffickers on that plane or things of that nature.
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Speaker 1: Now you brought up the stain in your jurisdiction, why
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Speaker 1: do you equate that with human trafficking. One of the
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Speaker 1: things I've I've learned since getting here to Memphis is
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Speaker 1: human trafficking in this area, in the mid South is
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Speaker 1: a huge problem. And this comes from talking to federal prosecutors,
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Speaker 1: talking to the district attorneys here. One of the things
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Speaker 1: is Memphis has I authority that runs from east to
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Speaker 1: west in the country, and then we have I fifty five,
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Speaker 1: which north. You can be in St. Louis within five hours,
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Speaker 1: you're gonna get Interstate fifty seven and go to Chicago,
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Speaker 1: or Indiana or Minneapolis, will Detroit. People have picked up,
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Speaker 1: you know, bus stations are We had a report of
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Speaker 1: the trafficker at a local galleria and before these people
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Speaker 1: realize that their families, they could be anywhere in the
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Speaker 1: company and where else. When we five hours from Atlanta,
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Speaker 1: I had a prosecutor tell me that this was a
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Speaker 1: human trafficking hub. You could also pick someone up and
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Speaker 1: be in Mississippian thirty minutes Burningham in two hours. It's
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Speaker 1: just set up in such a way that unfortunately, some
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Speaker 1: of the street kids get labeled this throw. No one's
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Speaker 1: gonna missle, you know what. You're so right, because particular
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Speaker 1: children are targeted, children that are runaways, children that are
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Speaker 1: snatched in areas where apparently when they go missing it's
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Speaker 1: not a priority. It's especially in other countries, and they
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Speaker 1: come through the US international airports and get trafficked. And
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Speaker 1: Alan and I have really learned a lot about this
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Speaker 1: recently from women getting abducted in California and all the
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Speaker 1: little girls that have been abducted in the DC area. Alan,
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Speaker 1: we've been talking about Mattie McCann and the theories that
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Speaker 1: she was sold into human trafficking or sold to some
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Speaker 1: couple that wanted a child for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
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Speaker 1: What do you think about that? Alan? This is the
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Speaker 1: tenure anniversary of her disappearance, and what we found is
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Speaker 1: this week Scotland Yard says they've got a new suspect
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Speaker 1: in the case, a woman they're not naming that was
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Speaker 1: spotted near that rental villa where she was last seen
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Speaker 1: where she vanished from in Portugal, and according to sources
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Speaker 1: that have told London's Telegraph newspaper, the investigators are about
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Speaker 1: to move in interview that woman. They call her hugely
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Speaker 1: significant line of wiry. And again there's no evidence that
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Speaker 1: she is dead, so there's every reason to assume that
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Speaker 1: she is alive someplace and perhaps a victim of human trafficking. Well,
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Speaker 1: a former Scotland yard detective says the quote most likely
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Speaker 1: incredible scenario for Maddie McCann's disappearance is a targeted kidnap,
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Speaker 1: possibly to replace a grieving parents dead child. Now those
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Speaker 1: are carefully selected words, Shane, very carefully selected words, and
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Speaker 1: it leads me to believe that it's coded for she
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Speaker 1: was a victim. There's a very strong working theory that
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Speaker 1: she is the victim of human trafficking. Why do you
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Speaker 1: think about it? Shame doesn't fly? I think it does, Nancy.
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Speaker 1: And the first news story I ever did was a
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Speaker 1: little girl in Alma, Arkansas, Morgan Nick. She was at
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Speaker 1: it from ballpark right along I forty. She was five
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Speaker 1: years old and has never been seen or heard from
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Speaker 1: sin No clue found anywhere, so you know, just like Maddie,
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Speaker 1: I mean, where are they where are they going? And
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Speaker 1: I think you have people to have the means when
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Speaker 1: they lose the child, they can patiently, like this new
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Speaker 1: suspect in Maddie McCann's case, to travel to these resorts.
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Speaker 1: We think, now, I would never leave my kid alone
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Speaker 1: or sleep when I'm you know, on vacation in the room.
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Speaker 1: Then I'm not in. But we get lulled into this
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Speaker 1: false sense of safety. Maybe it's gated or whatever, and
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Speaker 1: you know where you're gone, someone walks in and they've
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Speaker 1: watched you for a couple of days, and then where
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Speaker 1: you're at and they see you leave and they snatch
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Speaker 1: your kid and there's never a trace. Well, it's been asked,
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Speaker 1: if it is human trafting on Maddie McCann, why didn't
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Speaker 1: they take one of Maddie's baby siblings, the little you know,
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Speaker 1: baby sisters who would not have any recollection of a
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Speaker 1: previous life with their real parents. And a simple answer
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Speaker 1: is traffickers more likely than alone pedophile, because you want
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Speaker 1: to take someone that fits the criteria the traffickers are
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Speaker 1: looking for. For instance, has a young blonde little girl
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Speaker 1: similar to Maddie just die. Do their parents and her
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Speaker 1: parents want to replace there with a basically a child
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Speaker 1: look alike? Is there a reason to kidnap a particular
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Speaker 1: looking child? And I get it. I never thought of
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Speaker 1: it that way before Shane. These people or hiring these
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Speaker 1: traffickers to get the Cromford lack of a better term.
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Speaker 1: What's interesting is Alan people don't have human trafficking on
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Speaker 1: their radar. It is big and I really found out
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Speaker 1: about it through my old alma mater. Mercy of University
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Speaker 1: has a human trafficking task force and they're doing a
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Speaker 1: lot of work regarding the ladies that you think are
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Speaker 1: working volunteerily at these massage parlors. Yeah, not always so voluntary.
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Speaker 1: Fallowing up on what Shane just told us, the detectives
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Speaker 1: on the Maddie mcain ca say traffickers, as Shane just said,
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Speaker 1: could have been watching the McCann's rental, So they were
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Speaker 1: aware of the families quote routine, their vacation routine, and
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Speaker 1: they knew that they were what a football field length
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Speaker 1: away from the home that night having dinner with friends
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Speaker 1: where they thought they could keep their eye on the
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Speaker 1: apartment where the children were asleep, but they were a
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Speaker 1: football field link away. I think it was outdoors having dinner,
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Speaker 1: which really, you know, that's what three feet I'm not
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Speaker 1: sure exactly that they were and you think, well, my goodness,
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Speaker 1: that that's not that for at all, But it was
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Speaker 1: enough leeway for somebody to see them at a distance.
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Speaker 1: Wait till they weren't looking, untill they were pouring a
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Speaker 1: glass of wine or whatever they were doing, and get
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Speaker 1: the girl. Madeline's parents were dining at a table about
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Speaker 1: sixty meters that's about a hundred and eighty feet away
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Speaker 1: from the villa where their daughter went missing. I've closely
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Speaker 1: followed in recent years some of the efforts to educate
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Speaker 1: people about how human trafficking is in your own backyard.
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Speaker 1: For example, Cindy McCain, the wife of U S. Senator
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Speaker 1: John McCain, created a nonprofit group that does this, also
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Speaker 1: educating lawmakers as part of the job, pushing for laws
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Speaker 1: that don't punish the women who are forced into being
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Speaker 1: sex slaves, but instead going after the people who are
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Speaker 1: doing the forcing and the customer who's paying for them
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Speaker 1: to do it. Delta Airlines requires all of their employees
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Speaker 1: to undergo annual training to spot human trafficking at airports
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Speaker 1: and on their planes. It's called the Lightning training. It's
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Speaker 1: been developed by the federal government, and other companies use it,
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Speaker 1: and each of us can be on the lookout for
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Speaker 1: it too. You might be shocked to know that it's
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Speaker 1: in many of the small towns across America. There are
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Speaker 1: networks of massage parlors staffed by sex slaves, people who
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Speaker 1: were smuggled into this country illegally thinking they were coming
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Speaker 1: here for real jobs. But then the smugglers take their
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Speaker 1: documents and force these women into sex slave jobs and
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Speaker 1: men into restaurant jobs. They're routinely moved from one town
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Speaker 1: to another so that they don't get so comfortable with
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Speaker 1: one location that they might be emboldened. Alan That is
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Speaker 1: exactly correct about these so called massage parlers. Those are
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Speaker 1: sex slaves, those aren't. Some of them have been human
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Speaker 1: traffic and I don't know if you've seen the most
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Speaker 1: recent reports. They were conducted by the Field Center for
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Speaker 1: Children Policy at University Pennsylvania and the Modern Slavery Research
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Speaker 1: Project at Lay Yola. Nearly twenty percent of nine one
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Speaker 1: one homeless youth say they've been victims of human trafficking.
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Speaker 1: Fifty eight percent say they've been traffic for sex, seven
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Speaker 1: percent say trafficed for labor. This is happening right under
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Speaker 1: our noses. So, Shane, what do we do about it.
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Speaker 1: We've got to be vigilant. We've got to watch out
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Speaker 1: wherever you stop. Look. One of the worst places is
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Speaker 1: also our truck stops. If you're traveling, look around the trucks,
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Speaker 1: because some girls are taking around and past the different
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Speaker 1: truck stops. Just wherever you're at, even at the mall
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Speaker 1: of the supermarket, keep your eye open. You know. It
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Speaker 1: just breaks my heart. It breaks my heart said to
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Speaker 1: think that these children have been torn away from their
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Speaker 1: loving parents, and so many kidnappings and missing children, missing
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Speaker 1: teens could be solved, and human trafficking is at the root.
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Speaker 1: It's almost too hard to believe. I remember when I
15:04
Speaker 1: was little, my mom would told me that I had
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Speaker 1: to stay close to her or the gypsies would steal me.
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Speaker 1: I didn't even know what a gypsy was, but I
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Speaker 1: was so afraid. Okay, you know what, how how close
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Speaker 1: to the truth she was not about gypsies, but about
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Speaker 1: being stolen right exactly. I was terrified of hobo's hobos. Yeah,
15:28
Speaker 1: my grandmother would say hobos. And I did not know
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Speaker 1: what a hobo was, and I did not know what
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Speaker 1: a gypsy was, but I was convinced they were going
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Speaker 1: to try to steal me. Okay, that is a light note,
15:38
Speaker 1: but the truth is the hell that these people are
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Speaker 1: living through that have been trafficked. And let me give
15:44
Speaker 1: you one more important way to combat this, and that
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Speaker 1: is to look at the sex slave as the victim
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Speaker 1: and not the suspect. It was in the past more
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Speaker 1: that when they would arrest one of these women, they
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Speaker 1: would charge them with prostitution, put them in jail for
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Speaker 1: some time, and they'd have a criminal record, whereas actually
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Speaker 1: they were the victims. And there are laws changing all
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Speaker 1: over the country where when they identify what's really happening
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Speaker 1: to them, that they are sex slaves, they are treating
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Speaker 1: them as the victim, and that really helps go a
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Speaker 1: long way in solving this this problem. Here is the
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Speaker 1: eight hundred number one eight eight eight three seven three
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Speaker 1: seven eight eight eight toll free eight eight eight three
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Speaker 1: seven three seven eight eight eight Shane Deeter keeping up
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Speaker 1: the good fight. Thank you friend, Nancy Grace Crime Stories
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Speaker 1: signing off, goodbye friend,