Oct 26, 2009 11:15 pm US/Eastern
I-Team: Boston FBI Tracking Child Prostitutes
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
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FBI investigators tell the I-Team children are forced into a life of prostitution and are then forced to lie about their age.
WBZ
The FBI is cracking down on child prostitution. Since Friday night, the FBI has rescued more than 50 kids in 22 states. The WBZ I-Team has been investigating the scope of this crime right here in Boston.
An undercover Boston FBI agent showed the I-Team how he searches web sites for child prostitutes. Criminal organizations sell these kids using Internet-based escort services and phony ages.
FBI investigators tell the I-Team children are forced into a life of prostitution and are then forced to lie about their age, saying they are at least 18.
Special Agent Noreen Gleason says she is finding some kids as young 12 being sold on web sites. Many of the sites have special sections for the Boston area. "It is happening in various hotels and motels in the Boston area," said Gleason.
ONE PROSTITUTE'S STORY
The I-Team spoke to a 20-year-old woman who began working as a prostitute in Boston at the age of 17. She did not want to be identified.
She told us she learned what to do from a pimp. "They tell you how to answer your phone. How to talk using a sweet sexy voice."
At age 17, she says she used the escort web sites and met men in hotel rooms and private homes. "You go to their houses. You let them know you are outside. They come to the door. You exchange the money. You do what you do and you leave."
The I-Team also got the first look at exclusive video shot recently by Boston FBI agents. It shows a young girl meeting an undercover agent at a Boston hotel. She told the agent she started selling herself as a child.
The video shows her pimp waiting outside in a car.
THE GANG CONNECTION
More and more Boston FBI agents are finding a gang connection. "We are looking at how they are obtaining their money and we know traditional gang activity is selling drugs and weapons but now there is also the sale of young girls," explained Gleason.
"A lot of the girls are younger," the former prostitute who spoke with WBZ said. "They are immature and they are scared. They are afraid the pimps are going to track them down and kill them or beat them really badly until they are hospitalized."
The Boston FBI does have agents working this problem full time. They have rescued a handful of children in recent years and those kids are getting help, but sadly the problem is not going away.
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