Sex TraffickingArchive 2008–2016

Sex Trafficking in Los Angeles, California (2009)

A sex trafficking case from 2009 in Los Angeles, California, United States.

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Documented on the original SlaveryMap (2008–2016). We don’t have a verifiable source on file yet. Know one?

What happened

On April 11, 2006, after a multi-agency investigation by ICE, the IRS Criminal Investigation Division, and the LA County Sheriff’s Department, agents conducted a raid of eight locations, including the brothels and homes of the suspects. Mao, Lutt, and Johnson were arrested on April 11, 2006, on a 40-count indictment. Fields remained a fugitive, but was found and arrested on a later date. On August 2, 2007, Mao pleaded guilty to two felony counts--conspiring to use interstate commerce to promote prostitution, and using the proceeds from the brothels to purchase real estate, including four motocross tracks for her motocross company, MX Oasis. Mao will serve 18 months in federal prison and forfeit $10 million worth of real estate. Fields pleaded guilty to two felony counts—conspiring to use interstate commerce to promote prostitution, and conspiring to engage in money laundering. Johnson pleaded guilty to one felony count of money laundering.

Response and intervention

In the late 1990s, Jong Ock Mao opened six businesses, including a chiropractic office, an acupuncture clinic, spas, tanning salons, and massage parlors, according to the indictment. The businesses were fronts for brothels, where Korean and Mexican women worked off smuggling debts. Four women working at Paradise Spa (the Dallas location) were taken into custody. Two faced prostitution charges, while the other two faced administrative immigration violations. There were 3-18 women in each establishment, but no further information is known about their situations.

Nearby cases

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Bonded Labor2012

Los Angeles, California, United States, 2012

United States US

Maximino Morales, 46, and his wife, Melinda Morales, 48, formerly of Paso Robles, admitted harboring illegal aliens after they were smuggled into the United States and forcing them to work in sub-standard conditions at the couple’s elder care facilities. The Morales were each sentenced on February 13, 2012 to 18 months in federal prison. “The Filipino victims in this case were lured to the United States with false promises and were essentially performing slave labor,” said United States Attorney André Birotte Jr. The Morales, both natives of the Philippines, pleaded guilty last May to conspiracy to harbor illegal aliens. The Morales, who operated four elder care facilities under the umbrella of “Four M’s, Inc.,” admitted that they recruited Filipino nationals to come to the United States with promises of work as live-in caregivers. A co-conspirator in the Philippines helped the aliens obtain fraudulent visas that allowed them to travel to the United States. After they arrived, “some of the aliens worked alone in 24-hour shifts...as caregivers at one of the Four M’s elder care residential facilities for less than minimum wage,” according to plea agreements filed in this case. “All of the aliens lived in the care facilities, and some of the aliens slept in a closet, on a sofa, and in a walled-off portion of an unheated, attached garage.” The aliens’ pay was credited against the “debt” they purportedly owed, and the aliens were told that police or immigration authorities would be summoned if they attempted to leave.

Needs a sourceArchive 2008–2016

CSEC2004

Los Angeles, California, United States, 2004

United States US

Valle-Maldonado pleaded guilty to conspiracy to import and harbor aliens for the purpose of prostitution, importation of aliens for purposes of prostitution, and brining illegal aliens to the US. She was sentenced to 54 months in prison and ordered to pay $135,542 to nine of the victims. Three of her associates have also been convicted related to the case: Javier Sandoval-Garcia, Jose Velasquez-Garcia, and Juan Gregorio Martinez-Vasquez. Velasquez-Garcia and Martinez-Vasquez were sentenced to six months in prison.

Needs a sourceArchive 2008–2016

Domestic Servitude2008

Los Angeles, California, United States, 2008

United States US

Mariska Trisanti and her husband Herri Nasution recruited two women from Indonesia to come to Los Angeles to work in their home. Trisanti brought the victims to the US in 1997, on a tourist visa under the agreement that they would work for two years as nannies and housekeepers in her home. After arrival, Trisanti took their passports and other documents. The victims were forced to work seven days a week, for 17 hours or more each day. They were threatened with physical abuse and told they would be sent to jail if they did not work. The victims were not paid for their work.

Needs a sourceArchive 2008–2016