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The FBI is trying to find a man who kidnaps girls and forces them into prostitution.

Agents tell 11 News his victims worked at several locations across the city.    

Behind a hidden door, inside a Houston area cantina, the FBI found a small room where young women, some of them juveniles, were forced to work as prostitutes.

AP

Girls are being brought into the U.S. and forced into prostituion.

The women were victims of human trafficking.

Women who each thought they had found their true love who was bringing them to America for a better life.

“In this particular case, our main guy and the other subjects were romancing these girls telling them, ‘I am going to take care of you. I am going to build you a house’, selling them the American dream,” said FBI Special Agent Maritza Conde.

But as soon as they crossed the border and moved them into separate apartments on Houston’s East Side, the FBI says their dreams turned into nightmares.

“These traffickers are telling their victims basically, ‘You need to do as I say or I will kill your parents, I will kill your children’. Brutal beatings, humiliations, and most people that are being trafficked are foreign nationals so they have the language barriers as well,” said Conde.

To date five men have been convicted in this case and all are in federal custody awaiting sentencing.

But a sixth person, Gerardo Salazar, also known as “El Gallo” is on the run, maybe to Mexico.

He is the alleged ring leader and law enforcement believes he could return to Houston if he’s not here already.

“The human trafficking business is a very profitable one, so yes.. We think and we believe he is going to come back,” said Conde.

The United States is among three destination countries for sex traffickers.

The others are Japan and Australia. Once in America, traffickers most often set up shop in Texas, California, New York, and Nevada.

And it’s important to note that because of the psychological chains placed on these women, in almost every case, they’re unable to help themselves..

“They have no place to go. They have nobody to talk to. They trust nobody,” said Conde.