Experts warn of youngsters in sex trade

ALBUQUERQUE - Children and young adults forced into prostitution find it difficult to get help and get out, a victim of the sex trade told KRQE News 13 Tuesday.

“I really relate to what the victims go through because I was trafficked when I was 14 and taken and forced into prostitution,” Tina Frundt said in an interview.

It took Frundt a decade to get out of her life as a prostitute.

“It happens for years and years," she said. "It's really difficult to find places and people that will help you."

Frundt was one speaker among national experts who came to Albuquerque for the two-day Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Conference. The conference addressed the extent of the problem, how to intervene to help victims and prosecute criminals.

The experts also wanted to educate and train New Mexican law enforcement, social services and the juvenile justice system.

Statistics compile by congressional investigators suggest between 100,000 and 300,000 children are at risk of being a sex slave.

Frundt started a shelter based in Washington, DC, for children and young adults caught up in sex trafficking.

“We would love to have the opportunity to train others and to help actively," Frundt said. "We have gotten children who are from New Mexico.

"DC is a hub. We get kids from everywhere."

The information surprised Albuquerque Police Department Officer Todd Hudson.

“I’ve always known there's been prostitution, but the extent of what is actually involving children is substantial,” Hudson said. "I didn't know that."

The New Mexico Attorney General’s Office is putting on the conference.

“I hope they take this as an eye-opening experience and that the awareness is taken back to their respective agencies,” Assistant Attorney General Maria Sanchez-Gagne.

The AG’s office said it is collaborating with Chihuahua, New Mexico's Mexican neighbor, and signed an agreement with its state government to fight human trafficking at the border.