Tucson-area veteran producing documentary about child sex slavery

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TUCSON, Arizona (KOLD News 13) – A video about human trafficking has never been seen before.

They are scenes from an upcoming documentary, produced by a local veteran of the US military special forces, about a pervasive problem: child sex slavery.

Last week the Fed released information about an active search for sex trafficking victims following arrests here in Tucson and Texas.

One of the victims is a 14 year old who was recently rescued here in Tucson.

She said she was recruited on social media.

We are now hearing of a new wave of child trafficking being documented on camera to raise awareness of this ongoing problem.

Craig “Sawman” Sawyer was in Hell and back fighting international terrorists, but now he faces another fight on American soil.

Sawyer, a former member of Elite Navy SEAL Team 6, is now focused on rescuing children and is featured in the documentary “Contraland”. He is the head of a nonprofit, Veterans For Child Rescue.

It took 3 years to make.

“Federal law enforcement agencies are doing their best, but this is such a dark and despicable crime frenzy,” Sawyer said.

His crew is an experienced elite force with world-class skills: FBI, CIA, Delta Force and SEAL Team 6.

They work hand in hand with state and local law enforcement agencies to track down child molesters and human traffickers. You have arrested 22 so far.

“There seems to be a galloping increase in child trafficking. I see a transformation in this crime thriller. It was very hidden four years ago, ”he said.

Saywer and his crew have seen hundreds of people cross the river in Laredo, Texas with the help of the Mexican cartel. He was taking pictures of what he thinks was a scout.

“There are a lot of antitrust officers who wear life jackets and walk in the river. You are not afraid of getting caught, “he said.” You are arrogant. They yell at us, ‘Hey, do you like me?’ And they have flashlights and they act as tour guides. You bring people across the river as a full-time job. And they’ll just wait until law enforcement is off the other side of the bank. Once law enforcement has to act on something else, they’ll keep getting people across. “

And that includes children who could be traded without their parents.

“Many of these family units are not real family units. The children do not know who the adults are and the adults do not know who the children are. You will be linked to the cartel as a business on the Mexican side. The children are often sedated. They can’t even answer questions, ”he said.

Sawyer’s mission is to find her.

He and his crew were captured from a high speed hunt in southern Texas.

“We’re at the constable’s office. It was a van with 30 illegals in it, and it was a cartel driver who was driving them. When we were about to chase him, he ran, made a U-turn, and crashed through a rancher’s fence. You can see all the people pouring out, ”he said. “And the police helicopter came and we ran around helping law enforcement find these people. That’s after we’ve come out of the forest and taken a breather to round up some of the prisoners. “

You only rounded up 15, half of that. There were no children in this van.

Sawyer said it was incredibly difficult to track down traffickers and their victims anywhere in the country. Pima County Sheriff’s detective, David Stivers, agrees.

“They’re often mobile and that makes these things difficult to investigate because they’re not in one place for long when they’re on the line,” he said.

And he doesn’t just talk about children from foreign countries. Millions of American children from urban, suburban and rural areas are sold into sex slavery.

The FBI reports that traffickers use violence, manipulation, or false promises from high-paying jobs or romantic relationships to exploit the victims. A local FBI specialty agent as well as Detective Stivers tell KOLD that social media still plays an important role in attracting kids with hard-to-follow personal ads.

The old personal lines that you see in the newspapers are gone, but they are still there on the Internet, ”he said.

They use a lot of code words that generate the chat in all the different deep dark corners of the internet.

“What certain codewords mean and how to interact with these people,” said Stivers, “They see a lot of this clandestine publicity because it goes unnoticed or they change the format of the work they use or something they do want to avoid. ” any filters or other things that the providers use. “

In the meantime, Sawyer will continue to produce documentaries to shed light on this dark and troubling crime that remains a pervasive problem in our society.

“It’s a painful and ugly, ugly subject to address,” Sawyer said.

“Contraland” can be seen on the documentary’s website.

Further information on child trafficking can be found at:

Copyright 2021 KOLD News 13. All rights reserved.

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