'America's Most Wanted' investigates children sold as sex slaves in Cambodia

FILE - In this Oct. 12, 2009 file photo, John Walsh, host of "America's Most Wanted," attends the premiere of "The Stepfather" at the School of Visual Arts Theater in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini, file)

By Alicia Rancilio

NEW YORK, N.Y. (Canadian Press)— John Walsh has been hunting "America's Most Wanted" fugitives since 1988. On Saturday he goes undercover in Southeast Asia to investigate the sex trafficking of Cambodian children.

Accompanied by British police officer Jim Gamble, Walsh says he was shocked by what he saw.

He and Gamble went into a bar where there were 50 to 60 girls, Walsh said.

"Within two minutes a madam came up to us and said, 'What are you looking for?' and Jim said, 'We're looking for young girls.' She brought over three or four girls that were (about) 12 or 13 years old — very, very young."

Gamble told her they wanted younger girls, Walsh said. He said the woman replied, " 'What do you want? We have 6- and 7-year-old boys and girls. I can arrange that off premises.' It was disgusting and heartbreaking."

Walsh said Western pedophiles, from the United States, United Kingdom and Germany travel east to Cambodia as international sex tourists, looking to have sex with children.

He says the show choose Cambodia because it's cheap to buy a sex slave there.

"I saw many Western men that had come there not to go to the Buddhist temples, not to come there to look at the beaches, not to do anything at all but to molest and have sex with children. It's wrong, it's illegal and it has to change," he said.

Walsh said the episode will be a "tough show to watch" but said it's important to expose the reality that children are sexually assaulted by predators — many of whom are from the United States.

So far, the show has captured 1,135 criminals in its 24 seasons.

"America's Most Wanted" airs Saturdays at 9pm ET/PT on Fox.