HAMPTON, Va. — Human trafficking is a problem plaguing America and Hampton Roads.
News 3 continues to follow through on this problem by speaking with those directly involved.
We spoke to a 23-year-old survivor in a recent case who says she was forced to sell her body at the Oceanfront and on the Peninsula.
Virginia Beach Police were called when a maintenance worker heard screaming coming from a hotel room at the Oceanfront back in March, according to the survivor.
Court records reveal details of a human trafficking case that ended in Virginia Beach but started 700 miles away in Florida.
For safety reasons, we have chosen not to identify the victim in the case.
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She said back in January she called a family friend because she needed a place to stay after fighting with relatives she was living with.
She said the woman she called had previously been a mother-like figure in her life.
"I grew up without a mom. She kind of acted as a mother figure. She was close with me. I could call and talk to on the phone about what I was going through."
She said despite knowing that the woman was involved in drugs and prostitution she went to the house.
She said she fell asleep then then woke up to a gun in her face and was told she was going to work as a prostitute.
She said she was held against her will, shot up with drugs to keep her otherwise spunky personality sedated, and forced to have sex with about 200 men over the course of several months while they traveled up and down the East Coast.
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"I had no access to my phone and half the time they'd snipped the hotel room phones.. so I couldn't use those phones. I had no access to a phone,” she said.
She said when she arrived in Virginia Beach her female trafficker met up with another man.
“He was taking all the money that he made from me. He was buying himself weed, buying himself alcohol every day. She was paying her car payments from the money that she made off me, hotel rooms. Basically, he would say that we are a team and that all my money had to go to them,” she said.
But she says she didn’t see any money.
"I literally had to go to Walmart to steal my own body wash,” she said.
After police got called, they arrested a man and a 38-year-old woman for human trafficking.
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Both are being held in the Virginia Beach Jail.
We previously interviewed the woman from jail back in May. The 38-year-old claimed to be a victim herself and said she didn’t force anyone to do anything against their will.
“We have a Human Trafficking Task Force and it covers all seven cities even further west and further north to the Eastern Shore,” said Robin Gauthier, the Samaritan House Executive Director.
Samaritan House is a nonprofit that helps survivors of human trafficking. Experts say it is happening in local hotels and motels, and victims are frequently moved around to avoid detection by law enforcement.
"It's actually draining. It kind of makes you look at yourself like you're not human. It makes you feel like you're an object,” said the survivor in this recent case.
She said she is grateful to the maintenance worker who called police at the Oceanfront and encourages others to do the same.
According to Samaritan House, Virginia ranks 15th in the U.S. for reported cases of human trafficking.
Watch related: How Norfolk's airport is helping in the fight against human trafficking
National Hotline to Report Human Trafficking: https://humantraffickinghotline.org/en/report-trafficking
Samaritan House: https://samaritanhouseva.org/
Information from the Justice Department: https://www.justice.gov/humantrafficking/resources
