November 28th, 2011, Mother Love, the accomplished author, humorist, speaker, and co-host of dLifeTV on CNBC interviewed Allen Cardoza on her daily radio show on LA Talk Radio, about his efforts to expose the extent of human trafficking in the United States.
Cardoza, a licensed private investigator, said that it is estimated that 29 million people worldwide are caught up in the web of human trafficking; 1.25 million of those are victims here in the United States.
Asked about his career, he talked about how it started after he fell off a roof as a teenager when working for the family roofing business. During the 6 weeks he spent in bed, he thought about his future. Fascinated by the idea of detective work, he thumbed through the yellow pages of the phone book to find a job. It was only when he got all the way to the Z’s that a gentleman by the name of Walt Zwonitzer invited him in for an interview. But the interview did not go well and the P.I. ushered him out with the words, “I need a 19-year-old kid like I need a hole in the head.”
What Cardoza took from the interview was that according to Zwonitzer, persistence was vital to being successful in the investigation business. So, Cardoza began visiting the P.I.’s office daily. After nearly two weeks, Mr. Zwonitzer, needing someone to work a rush case decided to hire him.
The 19-year-old apprentice accidentally learned about human trafficking when working on a case about a missing girl. He discovered a party where lecherous older men picked up young girls for casual sex. After that experience, he decided to focus on recovering, rescuing and returning runaways, victims of human trafficking and parentally abducted children. This suited Zwonitzer. “You look like those snot-nosed kids,” he said, “so I’m going to send you to find them.”
Cardoza described the criminal world of human trafficking. Noting that drug traffickers found this business attracted less attention from law enforcement. As one drug trafficker commented to Logan Clarke, a top undercover detective, “I can sell a gram of cocaine once, but I can sell a woman over and over again.” Besides exploiting runaways, human traffickers also get human slaves from other countries, using false promises about jobs and threats about deportation to force them into the sex trade.
The interview concluded with a discussion about Allen’s work with international parental abduction cases, his co-authoring a best-selling book with renowned motivational speaker Les Brown, and his personal mission to make a positive difference in the lives of millions of people.
By Saleem Rana
