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Massage Parlor Raids Net 29 Arrests For Sex Trafficking

POSTED: 3:22 pm PDT July 1, 2005
UPDATED: 6:16 pm PDT July 1, 2005

SAN FRANCISCO -- Law enforcement agents arrested more than two dozen people on allegations of smuggling foreign women into the country through Canada and forcing them to work as prostitutes in massage parlors in the San Francisco Bay area, authorities said Friday.

After a nine-month investigation called "Operation Gilded Cage," about 400 federal, state and local agents searched about 50 Bay Area brothels, homes and businesses and arrested 27 suspects on Thursday night, said U.S. Attorney Kevin V. Ryan.

About 100 women, mostly Korean nationals, were taken from the raided properties to an undisclosed location where they were being cared for and interviewed by authorities, Ryan said.

"This investigation is aimed at stopping the horrific, demeaning and oftentimes brutal practice of smuggling and trafficking human beings into the U.S. for illicit purposes," Ryan said at a news conference where he was flanked by city, state and federal officials involved in the investigation.

In Southern California, hundreds of federal and local agents also arrested suspects in an operation targeting an alleged immigrant smuggling ring on Thursday night, said Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles.

U.S. Attorney Ryan wouldn't say whether the two operations were related, but he said the alleged ringleader of the Bay Area prostitution ring was arrested in Los Angeles.

The Southern California arrests were carried out in Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Anaheim and other cities by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents assisted by local law enforcement. More than three dozen search warrants were served.

In Northern California, 29 people, including most of those arrested, face charges that include sex trafficking, harboring illegal aliens, money laundering and transporting women across state lines to engage in prostitution, according to the U.S. Attorney's office in San Francisco.

On Thursday night, law enforcement agents searched 11 brothels --10 in San Francisco and one across the bay in Emeryville -- and confiscated $2 million in cash as well as three ATM machines.
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