By KIRK SEMPLE
Published: January 10, 2011
A Queens woman suspected of involvement in a human-trafficking ring that smuggled young Korean women into the United States and forced them into prostitution in New York and elsewhere on the East Coast was arrested while gambling at a casino in Connecticut, immigration officials said Monday.
The woman, An Soon Kim, 52, had been sought by the authorities since at least August 2006, when she was named in a federal complaint describing an elaborate scheme that brought Korean women into the country using false documents and made them work as prostitutes in brothels that masqueraded as massage parlors, health spas and acupuncture clinics, officials said.
Security workers at the Mohegan Sun, a gambling and entertainment resort in Uncasville, Conn., had been on the lookout for Ms. Kim since early December, when she was featured on the television program “America’s Most Wanted” and was recognized by a casino employee, according to the Web site of The Hartford Courant, which quoted the Connecticut State Police.
On Friday, Ms. Kim returned to the resort and was arrested by immigration agents on the casino’s gambling floor, said a statement by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an arm of the Department of Homeland Security. She was found with $17,045, officials said.
Mohegan Sun officials referred all inquiries to the State Police, which declined to comment on the case.
Ms. Kim will be transferred to New York to face numerous charges outlined in the 2006 complaint, including conspiracy to engage in human trafficking, interstate transportation of women for the purpose of prostitution, and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business. She is a legal permanent resident of the United States and has South Korean citizenship, federal officials said.
Ms. Kim was one of 41 defendants named in the complaint, and was described as a “brothel owner/manager” who called herself “Big Sister Kim.” Others were listed as “middlemen/transporters” and “money transmitters.”
The complaint described several cellphone conversations that Ms. Kim is believed to have had with a driver who is accused of shuttling women between brothels. In a conversation on March 25, 2006, Ms. Kim told the driver that “she was calling from Connecticut and needed girls,” the complaint said; the next day, the driver “told Kim he found a girl, but Kim said she already had gotten a girl.”
Federal investigators first revealed details of the trafficking ring on Aug. 16, 2006, when they announced the arrest of 31 defendants. The suspects were accused of running a network of at least 19 Korean-owned brothels stretching from Washington, D.C., to Rhode Island. Among them were unnamed brothels on 59th Street and West 26th Street in Manhattan, and a spa called the “Hong Kong” in Flushing, Queens, officials said.
The businesses catered primarily to an Asian clientele, officials said, and some made tens of thousands of dollars a month.
The women were recruited in South Korea, then provided with fake travel and visa documents or smuggled across the border from Mexico or Canada, officials said. Once they arrived at the brothels, the women were usually stripped of their identifications and compelled to work as prostitutes to pay off tens of thousands of dollars in debt to the recruiters and smugglers, according to the complaint.
They were told that if they disobeyed or tried to flee, they would be turned over to the immigration authorities or their relatives back home would be hurt, the complaint said.
The woman, An Soon Kim, 52, had been sought by the authorities since at least August 2006, when she was named in a federal complaint describing an elaborate scheme that brought Korean women into the country using false documents and made them work as prostitutes in brothels that masqueraded as massage parlors, health spas and acupuncture clinics, officials said.
Security workers at the Mohegan Sun, a gambling and entertainment resort in Uncasville, Conn., had been on the lookout for Ms. Kim since early December, when she was featured on the television program “America’s Most Wanted” and was recognized by a casino employee, according to the Web site of The Hartford Courant, which quoted the Connecticut State Police.
On Friday, Ms. Kim returned to the resort and was arrested by immigration agents on the casino’s gambling floor, said a statement by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an arm of the Department of Homeland Security. She was found with $17,045, officials said.
Mohegan Sun officials referred all inquiries to the State Police, which declined to comment on the case.
Ms. Kim will be transferred to New York to face numerous charges outlined in the 2006 complaint, including conspiracy to engage in human trafficking, interstate transportation of women for the purpose of prostitution, and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business. She is a legal permanent resident of the United States and has South Korean citizenship, federal officials said.
Ms. Kim was one of 41 defendants named in the complaint, and was described as a “brothel owner/manager” who called herself “Big Sister Kim.” Others were listed as “middlemen/transporters” and “money transmitters.”
The complaint described several cellphone conversations that Ms. Kim is believed to have had with a driver who is accused of shuttling women between brothels. In a conversation on March 25, 2006, Ms. Kim told the driver that “she was calling from Connecticut and needed girls,” the complaint said; the next day, the driver “told Kim he found a girl, but Kim said she already had gotten a girl.”
Federal investigators first revealed details of the trafficking ring on Aug. 16, 2006, when they announced the arrest of 31 defendants. The suspects were accused of running a network of at least 19 Korean-owned brothels stretching from Washington, D.C., to Rhode Island. Among them were unnamed brothels on 59th Street and West 26th Street in Manhattan, and a spa called the “Hong Kong” in Flushing, Queens, officials said.
The businesses catered primarily to an Asian clientele, officials said, and some made tens of thousands of dollars a month.
The women were recruited in South Korea, then provided with fake travel and visa documents or smuggled across the border from Mexico or Canada, officials said. Once they arrived at the brothels, the women were usually stripped of their identifications and compelled to work as prostitutes to pay off tens of thousands of dollars in debt to the recruiters and smugglers, according to the complaint.
They were told that if they disobeyed or tried to flee, they would be turned over to the immigration authorities or their relatives back home would be hurt, the complaint said.
Suspected Brothel Manager Is Arrested While Gambling - NYTimes.com
No comments:
Post a Comment