US Thai sex trafficking operation busted in America

About a dozen people were arrested in cities across the U.S. on Tuesday for running what authorities called a sophisticated sex trafficking operation in which hundreds of women were brought from Thailand to America under fraudulent visas and forced to work as prostitutes to pay off tens of thousands of dollars in bondage debts.

The women — including one who was forced to have sex with strangers for 12 hours a day, six or seven days a week— were not allowed to move about freely and were “effectively modern day sex slaves,” according to a redacted indictment unsealed Tuesday.

The arrests, along with the recent arrest of the organization’s boss in Belgium, will effectively dismantle the operation, said Alex Khu, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Minneapolis...
http://pattayaone.news/en/us-thai-sex-t ... n-america/

CEOCambodiaNews wrote:US Thai sex trafficking operation busted in America

About a dozen people were arrested in cities across the U.S. on Tuesday for running what authorities called a sophisticated sex trafficking operation in which hundreds of women were brought from Thailand to America under fraudulent visas and forced to work as prostitutes to pay off tens of thousands of dollars in bondage debts.

The women — including one who was forced to have sex with strangers for 12 hours a day, six or seven days a week— were not allowed to move about freely and were “effectively modern day sex slaves,” according to a redacted indictment unsealed Tuesday.

The arrests, along with the recent arrest of the organization’s boss in Belgium, will effectively dismantle the operation, said Alex Khu, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Minneapolis...
http://pattayaone.news/en/us-thai-sex-t ... n-america/

Tip of the iceberg no doubt.

US prosecutors seek more Thai suspects in sex ring case
The indictment said since 2009, hundreds of women were brought from Thailand to several US cities, including Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Minneapolis, Washington and Dallas and forced to work off "debt bondage" of $40,000-60,000 (up to 2 million baht)...

Mr Luger said their investigation -- which used surveillance, search warrants and interviews -- revealed "a global command and control structure based out of Thailand that employed house bosses, recruiters, facilitators and runners both in Thailand and abroad".

"These co-conspirators rented apartments and hotels and provided domestic and foreign transportation of the victims, laundered proceeds and committed visa fraud."

Ms Provinzino said the investigation started in Minnesota when they noticed many Thai women code-named "flowers" being transported through the Minneapolis-St Paul airport. They were immediately taken to shopping malls in inner-ring suburbs. "They'd purchase condoms and other supplies and then they were taken directly to the hotel or apartment where they were then set to service multiple men each day in commercial sex acts," she said...

Full article: http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general ... -ring-case

UPDATE
Sex traffickers took hundreds from Thailand to US
26 May 2017
MINNEAPOLIS -- Hundreds of women were brought from Thailand to the US and forced to be “modern day sex slaves”, according to an indictment unsealed Thursday that charges high-level members of what authorities called a sophisticated sex-trafficking ring that concealed millions of dollars in earnings.

The indictment brings the total number of people charged to 38, making it one of the largest sex-trafficking prosecutions in the US, said Acting US Attorney Gregory Brooker. Authorities say the operation lured Thai women to the US with promises of a better life, then forced them to work as prostitutes until they could pay off often insurmountable bondage debts...
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/special ... land-to-us

Many arrests in the US, but strangely enough...

The leaders of the ring based in Bangkok -- who are identified in the indictment as Individual A and Individual B -- are believed to be in Thailand and are at-large.

Human trafficking in US heavily involves Thai women
19 February 2018
Recent high-profile cases in Thailand are a reminder of the scourge of human trafficking. The Nation’s Wasamon Audjarint reports from the US cities of Houston and Los Angeles on sex trafficking rings involving Thai women often working in seemingly legitimate massage parlours – as well as their journeys out of illicit sex work.

AFTER SPENDING days roaming the streets of Houston, Texas, the sprawling, one-storey buildings with their massive footprints were ubiquitous. The offices of Elijah Rising, in their nondescript brown building on the Southwest Freeway, appeared to be no exception – except as the former quarters of Angela, a so-called “day spa” where six Thai sex workers, the victims of human trafficking, had been forced to work.

“They were never able to realise they were victims,” said Samantha Hernandez, social enterprise director of Elijah Rising, an NGO fighting to end human trafficking and social exploitation, as she led a bus tour in her office’s Houston neighbourhood.Without Hernandez’s guidance, it would be impossible for outsiders to know that some of the buildings, otherwise indistinguishable from their neighbours, have been closed after being discovered to host brothels. Others are still in business.

In regards to its present quarters, Elijah Rising, which seeks to raise religious awareness and takes an activist approach, intervened with the property owner in 2013 and the brothel operators were evicted. The building hosts offices of the NGO but also an exhibition and replica of Angela Day Spa, showing the living conditions in which the Thai victims were forced to live.
https://pattayaone.news/en/human-traffi ... hai-women/

CEOCambodiaNews wrote: ↑Tue Feb 20, 2018 4:44 am “They were never able to realise they were victims,”

Good thing someone told them. Now they can be sent back to Thailand to continue working in their chosen field but now for much less money.

I guess Mexicans trafficked to work in farms and factories and whore houses are less exotic. need to find an alternative supply of people before The Donald build his wall

Texas woman sentenced to 12 years for role in sex trafficking ring that operated in Minneapolis
by Mark Kelly, September 18, 2020

Nearly three dozen [people] have been sentenced for exploiting Thai women.

A St. Paul federal judge has sentenced a Texas woman to 12 years in prison for her role in an international sex-trafficking ring that prostituted hundreds of Thai women in cities across the United States, including Minneapolis.

The sentence given to Waralee Wanless on Wednesday by Senior U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank amounted to less than half the 27 years federal prosecutors had sought, according to court filings. But it was three times the sentence sought by Wanless’ attorney, who argued she was a victim who was first brought to the U.S. as a sex worker.

A Minnesota jury convicted Wanless and four other defendants in December 2018 following a six-week trial for their roles in operating the sex-trafficking enterprise.

Wanless, 41, of The Colony, Texas, was convicted on four counts including conspiracy to commit sex trafficking and conspiracy to commit money laundering. She started out as a sex worker in the organization and eventually ran prostitution houses in Chicago, Dallas and Washington, D.C., according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Shortly after the convictions, prosecutors called the case one of “modern-day sex slavery.”

“It exploited, it abused, enslaved and sold women in response to the high demand for commercial sex that exists not only in the United States but here in Minnesota,” said U.S. Attorney Erica MacDonald at the time.

According to federal prosecutors, 31 additional defendants pleaded guilty for their roles in the “massive sex trafficking operation” before the 2018 trial.

Wanless’ attorney, Lauren Campoli, argued for a lighter sentence, saying the defendant had grown up in poverty in Thailand, turned to prostitution as a teenager to survive and was a victim herself of the trafficking ring.

Campoli said Thursday that the case will be appealed.

“Prosecuting previous victims is not what our justice system is here to do. The focus should be on taking down privileged white men who are utilizing these vulnerable victims to make money,” Campoli said.

In court documents, prosecutors said that Wanless had become house boss in three cities “for a sex trafficking conspiracy that exploited and victimized hundreds of women for more than a decade.”
https://pattayaone.news/texas-woman-sen ... -for-role/

Privileged white men... Here we go again.

Bitte_Kein_Lexus wrote: ↑Sat Sep 19, 2020 6:47 pm Privileged white men... Here we go again.

Or let's blame the victims ? It's not the Thai women who organized this prostitution ring in the US. Seems clear that US men (skin colour is not an issue here) were exploiting Thai women.
Wanless is a Thai woman who was trafficked to the US as a prostitute. She got out of prostitution by working as a mamasan. No, it's not cool, she is not innocent, but she was groomed and further information suggests that family members in Thailand were threatened.

Wanless’ attorney, Lauren Campoli, argued for a lighter sentence, saying the defendant had grown up in poverty in Thailand, turned to prostitution as a teenager to survive and was a victim herself of the trafficking ring.

Campoli said Thursday that the case will be appealed.

“Prosecuting previous victims is not what our justice system is here to do. The focus should be on taking down privileged white men who are utilizing these vulnerable victims to make money,” Campoli said.

In court documents, prosecutors said that Wanless had become house boss in three cities “for a sex trafficking conspiracy that exploited and victimized hundreds of women for more than a decade.”

US Man Sentenced In Multi-Million Dollar, International Sex Trafficking Ring Which Exploited HUNDREDS of Thai Women
August 24, 2020

Michael Morris / Photo via Star Tribune

MINNESOTA — Michael Morris, 66, was sentenced to 17 years in prison for his role in operating a massive international sex trafficking organization that was responsible for coercing hundreds of Thai women to engage in commercial sex acts across the United States.

Following a six-week trial, on December 12, 2018, a federal jury convicted Morris and four other defendants for their roles in operating the sex trafficking enterprise. Thirty-one defendants pleaded guilty prior to the 2018 trial. To date, 29 defendants have been sentenced.

“Sex trafficking continues to be a repugnant local, national, and international crime that preys on vulnerable populations,” said United States Attorney Erica H. MacDonald. “This case demonstrates the dedication and relentlessness of law enforcement across multiple jurisdictions to bring those who commit these crimes to justice.”

As proven at trial, the sex trafficking organization coerced hundreds of women from Bangkok, Thailand, to engage in commercial sex acts in various cities across the United States, including Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Phoenix, Washington, D.C., Las Vegas, Houston, Dallas, Seattle, and Austin. The trafficking victims were forced to participate in the criminal scheme through misleading promises of a better life in the United States and the ability to provide money to their families in Thailand. Once in the United States, the victims were sent to houses of prostitution, including the three that MORRIS ran in southern California, where they were forced to have sex with strangers – every day –having sex with up to ten men a day. The victims were isolated from the outside world, and their families in Thailand were threatened.

As proven at trial, the organization also engaged in widespread visa fraud to facilitate the international transportation of the victims and engaged in rampant and sophisticated money laundering in order to promote and conceal illegal profits. During the extensive investigation, law enforcement traced tens of millions of dollars to the organization.
https://breaking911.com/us-man-sentence ... hai-women/