CSEC2008
United States US
The suspect was a 23 year old man who forced a 12 year old girl into prostitution. He met her thorugh a mutual friend on January 9th and invited her to hang out. Police said he had unprotected sex with her that night and several times over the next several days. When the girl failed to return home the night of the 9th, her family filed a missing persons report. During the five days, the two stayed at the homes of several women who described themselves as the suspect's fiances. She was ordered by the man to walk the streets of South King County to work as a prostitute and the man allegedly told her the exact price to charge for each sex act. She was also told not to tell her age to any customers. One of the suspect's "financees" became angry about the girl and called a phone number she found in a school binder that the girl had left at her home. The person who answered the phone turned out to be the 12 year old girl's sister. The "fiancee" told the sister where the missing girl was in downtown Seattle. Police said relatives found the girl Sunday night with the man in downtown Seattle. The relatives took the girl to Harborview Medical Center where a rape examination was performed and then went to the Seattle police department's West Precinct and notified police they had found her. After talking to the girl, the police found the suspect on a West Seattle street. According to detectives, the man's acquaintances say he has befriended other young girls, raping them as well as coercing them into prostitution.
CSEC2011
United States US
Tramble first came to the attention of law enforcement in or about August 2010, when Kent Police Department officers encountered a juvenile female working as a prostitute. This victim told police how Tramble beat and coerced her, and how he advertised her as a prostitute on Backpage.com. Further investigation by law enforcement revealed that Tramble forced numerous women to work for him as prostitutes. The case was investigated by the FBI’s Innocence Lost Task Force, which is composed of local, state and federal law enforcement officers who investigate juvenile prostitution. Key assistance was provided by the Kent Police Department.
Sex Trafficking2006
United States US
The 21-month investigation used confidential informants, court approved wiretaps, and GPS tracking to identify those involved with the sex trafficking ring. Information about the criminal activity first surfaced in April 2004 when the Eastside Narcotics Task Force raided the Apple Spa in Bellevue after determining it was a front for prostitution. Both KANG, JIANG, and ZHU had been involved in the operation of the Apple Spa. ZHU was deported to China as an illegal alien, but quickly returned illegally to the United States. KANG and JIANG failed to show up for deportation hearings. In December 2004, FBI agents in Portland learned KANG had resurfaced there and was operating a brothel. In the midst of the investigation in May 2005, KANG returned to Seattle and opened a brothel. In various conversations with confidential sources or on wiretapped telephone calls, conspirators discussed how the Asian women had been smuggled into the United States. KANG told one confidential informant that women were being smuggled into the U.S. in shipping containers, paying fees to smugglers of as much as $50,000. The investigation determined that some of the women were smuggled into the U.S. by illegally crossing the border from Canada. The women had to pay off their debts to the smugglers by working in brothels in cities across the country. One of the conspirators was recorded in a phone conversation saying she had lost a lot of money when smuggled women fled without working off their debt. Law enforcement was able to track tens of thousands of dollars going from the U.S. to possible smuggling “agents” in China who arrange for the women to be smuggled into the country. The investigation determined women working in the brothels were citizens of China, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan and Laos. The investigation is continuing into the brothel network in other U.S. cities.