Staff writers Ruby Gonzales and Sandra Molina contributed to this report.Inland Empire escorts, body rubs, stripper ads are available at. “Hopefully, we can make this a thing of the past.” “By partnering with federal and state law enforcement, we’re hoping to make a dent in this type of terrible crime,” Kuredjian said. Some defendants also used witch doctors to threaten the girls that a curse would be placed on them and their families if they tried to escape. The federal Department of Justice said the defendants intimidated and controlled their victims by threatening to beat them and kill their loved ones if they tried to escape. In that case, five members of an extended family – four from Guatemala and one from Mexico – were sentenced to prison for their roles in a sex trafficking ring that lured young Guatemalan women and girls to the Los Angeles area and forced them into prostitution. The FBI and Homeland Security Investigations probe these kinds of cases, sometimes jointly, under federal civil rights statutes, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said.Ī 2009 case bears similarities to the operation investigated this year.
The women have been offered assistance but have been largely uncooperative, possibly because of cultural distrust of law enforcement, Kuredjian said.Īuthorities said they seized $350,000 cash from the suspects and froze assets that included $730,000 in bank accounts and three houses valued at $1.8 million. “The network was run much like a corporation,” the Sheriff’s Department said.Ĭui and Xia have pleaded not guilty Hsin Wang, Yiwen Wang and Hu are due in Superior Court in Ventura on Sept. Two others, Jiuyin Cui, 63, of Rosemead, and Runan Xia, 33, of Alhambra, are suspected of transporting the women between different motels, as well as maintaining the motel rooms, and providing food, water and toiletries for the victims. Wang’s sister, Yiwen Wang, 42, of Covina, laundered the money by investing in real estate, the release said. She would negotiate with the men and direct them to motel rooms. Hu served as the dispatcher, the release said, taking calls from hundreds of men monthly answering the ads. The transactions ranged from $100 to $160, and investigators allege the proceeds were laundered through as many as 50 bank accounts.Īuthorities allege Covina resident Hsin Chieh “Jerry” Wang, 40, oversaw the group and worked with Defung Hu, 33, of San Gabriel, who they say coordinated the transportation and lodging of the victims. District attorneys across the country have tried, without success, to persuade or force the website to remove the ads. Those solicitations, law enforcement officers say, are thinly veiled advertisements for prostitutes, some of whom are minors.
The victims were advertised in the Escorts section of. The traffickers ignored the women’s objections. Once placed in a motel, they rarely came out for any reason, and were subjected to verbal abuse by their captors and physical abuse and robbery by the customers, the release said. with legitimate visas and little or no knowledge of English. The women, recruited through advertisements in China, were in their 30s and 40s who came to the U.S. Through prostitution stings at Ventura County motels in February, detectives said they identified a victim and found evidence revealing the group was operating across the region. The arrests capped a six-month investigation by local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, the Sheriff’s Department said in a news release.
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