In Minneapolis, a man suspected of luring 100 Asian women into a sex ring has been charged in federal court with transporting women across state lines to engage in prostitution: Man Faces Federal Charges in a Sex Ring in Minnesota. According to Minneapolis police, Liqing Liu began a sex business in February and made $70,000 a month, rotating locations and prostitutes frequently in an effort to inconspicuous. Most recently, Liu was using "a shabby massage parlor in Minneapolis, where red stickers spell the word 'Massage' in crooked letters and a waving ceramic cat was perched in the lobby." (Not very inconspicuous, if you ask me.) The women, all Chinese or Korean, were prohibited from leaving the place of "business," kept under video surveillance, and had their passports and other forms of documentation confiscated. Doesn't this story sound familiar? Sadly, it sounds like your stereotypical sex trafficking case—it just happens far too often. But at least that's one less, in one American city.
UPDATE: And another prostitution ring busted over the weekend in New Jersey: Hunterdon massage parlors accused of prostitution. Most of the women were of Asian descent, and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement is investigating whether human trafficking was involved.
UPDATE: Aaaaand another one, this time in New York. Che Ngan Tsui, his wife, Len Wah Chong, and two relatives were arrested earlier this week on allegations of importing Asian women to work as prostitutes in massage parlors in Niagara Falls, Lockport, Wheatfield and the Town of Tonawanda: Massage parlor operators accused in prostitution ring received political help. The twist is, they apparently received help from politically connected people—including an assemblyman, a mayor and a top political fundraiser—while setting up their businesses, public records show. Trouble...
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