Sex Slave Trafficking Exposed in Texas
KCAL-9 (Dallas), February 24, 2006
A Dallas business owner has admitted in court papers that she held South Korean nationals against their will for the purpose of prostitution.
The case stems from a raid on area spas last August, reports KTVT-TV’s Jack Fink.
Prosecutors say the women were forced into prostitution so they could pay the people who smuggled them into the country.
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Several Korean women were brought into the country and all were being held against their will, forced to work as prostitutes until they paid all they owed.
“It’s my belief that there’s probably a number of others that were sent and this one was detected. And there’s no telling how much money that they’ve sent and how much money they’ve made off of these girls,” said John Teakell, a former federal prosecutor.
Three spas raided last August were run by a woman named Mi Na Malcolm.
Prosecutors say she housed the women in the spas and used video surveillance.
Malcolm has signed court papers saying she will now plead guilty and forfeit her 2006 BMW, 2004 Lexus and more than $200,000 in cash seized.
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From the Associated Press:
Four Chinese citizens pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal charges related to running an underground network that sold Asian women for sex out of Bay Area brothels.
The four entered their pleas in U.S. District Court to charges including conspiracy to harbor aliens, money laundering and tax evasion. Prosecutors said they led a $700,000 enterprise that transported Taiwanese, mainland Chinese and Korean women to the United States to sell them for sex in 10 residential brothels in San Jose, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale and San Mateo.
Xiao Feng Shen, 35; Jia Jing Chu, 34; Yan Song, 42; and Ai-Ching Chang, 45, pleaded guilty Wednesday. A fifth defendant, Ming Sun, 32, pleaded guilty Feb. 1.
“We want to make it perfectly clear that the degradation of women will not be tolerated in our communities, and we will be proactive in our efforts to arrest those who prey upon the plight of other human beings,” San Jose Police Chief Rob Davis said in a statement.
