Trafficking sweep nets Hutto men

Two men among 21 charged with running international operation.

Two Austin-area men had key roles in a large-scale international sex trafficking operation that made tens of millions of dollars by luring women from Thailand with false promises of a better life in the United States, according to an indictment unsealed Thursday in Minnesota.

Gregory Allen Kimmy, 36, and Saowapha Thinram, 43, both from Hutto, advertised the women for sex through online websites and used homes they owned in the Austin area to arrange the sexual encounters. These men often pocketed 40 percent of the money the women received from customers, according to the indictment.

The 21 charged defendants include 11 U.S. citizens — including one each from Dallas, Houston and The Colony — and 10 Thai nationals. All but one of them was arrested Wednesday, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota. One defendant is at large. The Hutto men were apprehended, according to a spokeswoman for the attorney’s office.

According to the document, the operation, which began in 2009, trafficked hundreds of women from Bangkok to major American cities, including Minneapolis, Los

Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Phoenix, Washington, D.C., Las Vegas, Houston, Dallas, Seattle and Austin. The women were forced to work long hours — sometimes all day — and were prohibited from leaving the houses unless they were accompanied by a member of the organization.

They were lured to the country with lies about a better life in exchange for a bondage debt of between $40,000 and $60,000, according to the indictment. Those debts often increased when the organization encouraged the women to get breast implants in Thailand to make themselves more appealing to potential sex customers.

The operation also engaged in visa fraud to facilitate the transportation of the women to the country. Per the indictment,