A syndicate held girls as sex slaves by forcing them to work off tens of thousands of dollars of debt they had accrued for phony documents and transportation to the U.S., the feds said. Investigators said recruiters in Korea sought out women who wanted to make money to support their families. The recruiters took care of everything, supplying fake immigration documents, passports and visas, and transporting the women to the U.S. A network of transporters drove them to brothels along the East Coast. They were stripped of their identification and phony passports, thus cutting off any chance that they could flee the country. Besides, if they thought about running, the women were warned that they could be handed over to the police - or, worse yet, that their fhttp://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-16694466_ITMamilies in Korea could be killed.
Location
United States · Philadelphia PA · 2006
(location generalized to protect survivors) Response & intervention
The federal crackdown closed dozens of brothels up and down the East Coast that operated under the guise of legitimate businesses, netted 31 arrests and freed more than 70 sex slaves. Among the businesses closed were the Callowhill Relaxation Center and an operation called "Smile" on N. West End Boulevard in Quakertown. Another Pennsylvania location shuttered was "Good Natural," in York, next to the Briarwood Golf Club. The probe and arrests were announced Wednesday in New York by officials of the U.S attorney's office, Homeland Security and the FBI. Those arrested included brothel owners and managers, middlemen who worked as transporters and otherwise assisted the organization, and individuals involved in transmitting unlicensed money, or money launderers, officials said.
The probe began in May 2005, when a Korean couple who owned and operated a chain of brothels in Queens tried to bribe an undercover New York police detective. They offered him at least $125,000 to look the other way, investigators said. The couple was arrested in March along with two police officers who the feds say took the bribes. They will be tried separately on public-corruption charges. These arrests led investigators to tap the phone of one Tae Hoon Kim, also known as Tae Won, of Flushing, an alleged middleman and transporter. It was then that the feds realized they had a multi-state operation on their hands.
More than 70 Asian slaves were freed.
U.S attorney's office, Homeland Security and the FBI
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