SAN ANTONIO -- It's being called modern-day slavery. Sex trafficking -- where children are bought and sold for sex.
You may have heard it happening in other countries, but it's happening to kids in San Antonio, too.
News 4 WOAI Trouble Shooter Delaine Mathieu hit the streets with two Bexar County detectives in search of children in trouble.
The Department of Justice says San Antonio is a hub for sex trafficking in the U.S. mainly because of the I-10 corridor that runs from El Paso to Houston.
But you don't have to go very far to find victims. They're right here in San Antonio.
During our ride-along with Bexar County detectives, we looked for underage girls who may have been forced into prostitution.
"Something that we're seeing more and more of now is what we call domestic-minor sex trafficking," says the undercover detective.
"We've come to see that a lot of the domestic victims, average (age) between 11 and 13."
The detectives work undercover for the county's sex trafficking task force. It's only three years old, but they're busy working 34 cases in the county.
"We have stories where kids are recruiting kids in middle school."
The problem is finding them.
The detectives say the girls are terrified to come forward after being repeatedly beaten and threatened by their pimps.
"It's sickening, the things that we see and hear about," he adds.
On this night, they drive up on a young homeless couple. The woman is 22. The man is 23; and detectives say he is her pimp.
She has three kids, one on the way and she is HIV positive.
Two more girls walk up. One of them doesn't have I.D., but swears she is 18.
A few blocks away, they spot two girls. One of them looks very young. She says she is 16 years old and it's 1:30 in the morning.
The detectives are suspicious, they call the girl's caregiver and walk her home.
We see another young girl, but she slips away.
"We're looking at those kids that are particularly runaways." Melissa Moreno is the director of the anti-trafficking program at Catholic Charities Archdiocese of San Antonio. It's a federally funded program that helps victims of international sex trafficking.
"They have lived lives that you and I could never imagine," says Moreno.
In 2007, three women went to prison for luring three young girls from Mexico here for prostitution. It was the first sex trafficking case prosecuted in Bexar County.
But now, Moreno says she's seeing more and more victims from here.
Recently, a 13-year-old girl was tied to a bed for three months in an abandoned house on the East Side where she was prostituted for $25 a person.
"They have been forced to face physical horrors, medical issues that most us would not ever deem to think even possible for someone in that age group," says Moreno.
The detectives we spoke to say parents have to talk to their kids about the dangers of the streets. Because while runaways are easy prey for predators, if there is an opportunity, any child will do.
"It happens at the mall, it happens at the arcade, it happens at the movies, it happens at parties, it happens at get-togethers, it happens at the park... anywhere kids congregate. There's going to be a shark waiting to pick up your kid," he says. "And it can happen."
New state legislation is making it easier for agencies to reach out to victims in Texas. But the detectives here say they just need more help finding them.
