10:37 AM CST on Wednesday, February 15, 2006

By Jeff McShan / 11 News

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There is an enormous problem of child prostitution in our country, and th well-organized industry has made its way to Houston.

The FBI has made this one of its top priorities, and it's an ongoing operation called "Innocence Lost."

One FBI agent has rescued 22 children from our streets, one as young as 12.

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The ongoing operation is called "Innocence Lost."

To tell the story every parent should hear, we begin in Shreveport, L.

At this truck stop, a 13-year-old runaway met a man from Houston.

"He pulled up next to her, started talking to her and he said 'Hey baby, if can show you the world," said Vanessa Walthem, special agent with the FBI.

The girl liked his car and wanted a new life.

"And she got in the car with him. He had her back in Houston five hours later and two hours after that, she was on Hillcroft, working as a child prostitute," said Walthem.

He was a pimp and his initial love, affection and attention quickly turned to physical, emotional and sexual abuse.

She was now a part of his stable working streets in southwest Houston and she was making him money.

Walthem is a person with a huge heart.

She and her partner, Pat France, are investigators that have been working thankless hours to save Houston's children of the night. "I started going out talking to police officers. Pat France and I did, and all of a sudden I found out we have a huge problem here," said Walthem.

11 News was given rare access inside FBI to see how these federal investigators are battling this crime.

Up on the wall, they had pictures of Houston-area pimps they've been tracking, as well as some of the young women that are working for them.

In the case of the 13-year-old girl from Shreveport, they showed us surveillance tape where she had been taken to hotel for a trick. The customer shows up and leaves an hour later and the pimp drives her away.

While many of the child prostitutes are runaways, the FBI and HPD said they actually come from all walks of life. That's why parents need to hear this story, because pimps, they say, are always recruiting -- at movie theaters, at malls and even in our schools.

"The pimp, being the master manipulator, might befriend a young kid, a male, start hanging out with him and then he ends up at the high school football games or the high school basketball game and he's able to talk to them. I mean it's scary. It's scary to think your kid can go to a high school basketball game and they can be targeted by a pimp," said Walthem.

Captain Steve Jett is with HPD's vice division.

Some of them will sometimes take them out of school and have them go turn tricks during the daytime, and take them back to class for the afternoon sessions. It's amazing how creative some of them are," said Capt. Jett.

But the FBI said thanks to assistance from Capt. Jett's squad, many of these men have been arrested, charged and convicted.

Torrence Samuels is the pimp that brought the 13-year-old here from the truck stop. He was sentenced to 99 years.

Pete Richardson was sentenced to life.

One of his girls working the hotels on the southwest side started with him when she was 12. At 16 she finally testified against him.

"And when he received a life sentence, she broke down and cried. And recently she wrote me a letter saying she felt bad about that. She knew it was the right thing to do, but she felt bad," Walthem said.

When Richardson was arrested, the FBI found a tape recorder on him, where he had recorded his thoughts for one of his girls.

"Let me do this, let me lead this. You've got to trust me to lead this 'beep' man. You know that's why you've got a pimp," Richardson said on the tape.

Investigators also found a set of "Pimpin' Rules" that include: A girl from a small town has to be moved fast.

Investigators said that's to get them out of their environment.

Another rule is that a pimp is the boss of her life.

In 18 months, 22girls have been recovered from Houston's streets.

These are girls that both HPD and the FBI describe as victims, not criminals.

But the underground pimp culture goes on, and some never make it out.

It's a story we thought parents of young children should hear.

According to a study by the University of Pennsylvania, there are approximately 300,000 child prostitutes in the United State, some of them as young as 9-years-old.

If you have any information on anyone involved in this industry, you're urged to call HPD or the local office of the FBI.