Law enforcement caught wind of a brothel exploiting girls in a major commercial area in Latin America. Not long after they first heard about it, a girl brought her story to the authorities, sharing that she’d been trafficked for sex, alongside other teenage girls. A powerful trafficker named Isaac* ran the operation.
By police request, The Exodus Road’s Latin American team started an investigation.
Over more than a year, the investigators meticulously built a body of evidence. They learned everything they could about Isaac and his associates. Meanwhile, they started to build friendships with the girls he was trafficking.
Four of the youngest girls were most open in sharing about what they were experiencing. They were controlled by threats, manipulation, and forced drug use. They were regularly beaten by their traffickers. They lived in a room near the brothel, forced to service clients who picked their photos out of grotesque catalogs advertising sexual services.
These four girls — the youngest just 13 years old — bravely agreed that they would give their full testimony to the police. That was ultimately the evidence needed for law enforcement to intervene, arresting Isaac and a few of his accomplices.
Nearly a dozen girls were found in the brothel on the day of the law enforcement raid. At first they were frightened, overwhelmed by the suddenness of police intervention after so much abuse. Once they were removed from the site of their trauma, the teenagers started to settle into relief. The reality set in: they are free.
*Image representative
