SEX SWEATSHOPS
3 charged in trafficking as feds raid five brothels 10 women forced into selling their bodies were rescued, authorities say
The women being sold for sex worked 12 hours a day every day of the week and barely spoke English, except to say, “how much?” They were shuffled between brothels in a sex sweat shop operation that encompassed Boston’s Chinatown neighborhood, Quincy, North Reading and Cambridge. They were bringing in more than $100,000 a week for their pimps.
There were two to three women at each brothel — three of them in luxury apartments, where the only furniture was mattresses. The johns paid in cash — $100 for 15 minutes and $160 for an hour — which the sex traffickers pocketed for themselves, raking in over $1 million since investigators began their probe in January.
That is what the prosecutor told a judge yesterday after raids across eastern Massachusetts netted five suspects in a sex trafficking ring and freed 10 women. Prosecutors say agents from the FBI and the Attorney General’s office busted a sophisticated and lucrative sex trafficking and money laundering racket in raids targeting five brothels, two homes and several vehicles in the five locations.
The johns all told investigators the same story. They’d answered an ad on Backpage.com, were given an address and were greeted at the door by an Asian woman dressed in a bathrobe before entering a sparse apartment, said prosecutor Nancy Rothstein.
Attorney General Maura Healey, who has made combating sex trafficking one of her top priorities, said the “arrests follow a tragic pattern we are seeing in our neighborhoods — vulnerable individuals being preyed upon and sexually exploited for profit.”
“We want victims to know that they will not be prosecuted and that our offices will work to make sure they receive the services they need and deserve.”
Four of the suspects appeared in Woburn District Court, their hands cuffed behind their backs. Pingxia Fan, 40, of Chinatown, Timothy Hayes, 50, of Gloucester and Simon Shimao Lin, 59, of Chinatown, were charged with trafficking persons for sexual servitude, deriving support from prostitution, money laundering, keeping house of ill fame and conspiracy.
Robert Mozer, 65, of Deerfield, N.H., was charged with conspiracy to traffic persons for sexual servitude.
Rothstein asked for Fan, Hayes and Lin to be held on $1 million bail each but Judge Ernest Sarason set it at $150,000. Mozer was held on $50,000. All are banned from using the internet.
Another woman, Biqun Xiao, 47, of Deerfield, N.H., is charged with conspiracy to traffic persons for sexual servitude and will be arraigned today.
The victims, all Asian women forced into the sex trade, were brought here from Flushing, N.Y., said Rothstein, a prosecutor with the attorney general’s human trafficking division.
“They’re taken to a brothel location where they’re not permitted to leave,” Rothstein said.
“They are given food and after a couple of weeks, they’re taken to another brothel location.”
“What we’ve heard from most of the commercial sex buyers who we interviewed in this case …. would say there was pretty much only mattresses there,” she said.
The investigation began in January when North Reading cops spotted photos of young, scantily clad Asian women on Backpage.com, according to court records. The ads said to call for a “sensual experience” in Boston, North Reading and the North Shore.
A detective called and spoke with a woman who told him to go to a Lowell apartment. Investigators began conducting surveillance and spoke with several johns they nabbed leaving the apartment.
Fan and Hayes regularly deposited thousands of dollars in cash into bank accounts, court records show. Yesterday, $40,000 was found at the Hayes’ house, Rothstein said, and $3,000 found at a Beach Street apartment in Chinatown.
Fan, Hayes and Lin regularly visited Foxwoods — possibly trying to launder the money through gambling, Rothstein said.