Minneapolis police and federal agents on Thursday busted a prostitution operation involving more than 100 Asian women brought illegally into the United States who put an estimated $70,000 a month into the ringleader’s pocket.
Minneapolis police and the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency started working together about a year ago, when an ICE special agent learned of an illegal sex business in Minneapolis.
Since then, the operation has moved frequently, from Minneapolis to hotels in Bloomington. The women, all Chinese or Korean, were brought in from Las Vegas; Flushing, N.Y.; and Los Angeles, working a couple of weeks before moving on. The ring currently was running from a massage parlor in Minneapolis and a posh apartment complex in suburban St. Louis Park, Minn.
It’s unclear whether the ringleader, a Chinese national who has not yet been charged, had other brothels, but police have identified at least a dozen similar operations in the Twin Cities.
“This is the face of human trafficking in Minnesota,” said Sgt. Grant Snyder, one of the lead investigators. “It’s no longer just the image people have of women chained to beds or being smuggled into the country hidden in boats. (Still) the women in this ring were most likely coerced in some way.”
Most clients were white, upper-class men between ages 35 and 55, Snyder said. They included doctors, people celebrating birthdays and a Wisconsin business owner. The starting price was usually $80, all of which went to the leader. Any money earned by the women came through negotiations behind closed doors.
“Some were forced to the United States illegally to pay off debts,” said Sgt. Matt Wente, another lead investigator. “Others came willingly for financial opportunities not possible in their homeland, but then got drawn in a prostitution network that is difficult to escape.”
The four women found during Thursday’s raids weren’t arrested. Instead, representatives from the Jerry Vick Task Force, which works with crime victims, was on hand to help them find social services and temporary housing.
Snyder said the women weren’t allowed to leave the place of business. They would sleep on a couch or a massage table. They often spoke no English, and passports or other forms of identification were taken away, he said. The ringleader kept them under video surveillance.
Customers continued to seek a massage at the Minneapolis location Thursday, even with officers standing in the lobby. After taking out boxes of evidence and $6,500, Snyder turned off the neon “open” sign in the window and locked the door.
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