Area raids target human trafficking
Ring allegedly ran operations in northern suburbs and in southwest
Four people arrested this week and charged with human trafficking lured Chinese women into prostitution, confined them and shuttled them around a dozen businesses and homes in Harris and Montgomery counties as part of an extensive organized crime ring, Montgomery County authorities said Friday.
The investigation, which began with a tip from a resident on a quiet street in The Woodlands, ended in the first human trafficking charges filed in Montgomery County, prosecutors said. They said suburban population growth has helped spur demand for the crimes.
While Houston in recent years has been aggressive in rooting out trafficking crimes, Montgomery County prosecutor Tyler Dunman said perpetrators are increasingly eyeing the suburban county north of Houston as a place where they can slip through the cracks.
“We want to crush the trade here in Montgomery County,” District Attorney Brett Ligon said at a news conference.
Prosecutors said they were working with federal authorities to study the extent of the organized crime activity, which likely
stretches overseas. Authorities said victims — largely women — would be extorted into service by members of organized crime units. They would enter the country via cities like New York or Los Angeles before being transported to areas like Houston.
Police said they found eight victims as part of Thursday’s raids, some of whom had been in the country for weeks, some for years. They are hoping more victims come forward.
“We are working with (the Department of ) Homeland Security, trying to identify this group,” Montgomery County Sheriff ’s Office Lt. Philip Cash said. “We do believe it is a very large organized crime unit.”
Thursday’s raids by local and federal authorities hit both the suspects’ residences as well as four businesses in Montgomery and Harris counties: Amy Spa in Pinehurst, Foot Ways Spa and Elin Spa in Spring, and an address on Bellaire Boulevard in southwest Houston.
Prosecutors identified the suspects as Thomas Tran, 58, Nianying Xie, 43, Jeffery Wright and Xing Shi, whose ages are unknown. Each faces felony charges of organized criminal activity and trafficking of persons, Dunman said.
The district attorney’s office said Friday that none of the suspects had yet retained attorneys and that the suspects — still in the Montgomery County Jail as of Friday evening — were not available for comment.
Police said they are trying to locate a fifth suspect, Jinger Wang, 32, of the Bellaire area.
Several of the businesses raided were “spas” located in strip malls along busy thoroughfares.
Across from an H-E-B store in Spring, the open sign was still lit above the door at Elin Spa, one of the locations raided by police Thursday. Cars whizzed by on FM 2920. The glass door was locked. A Mickey Mouse business card holder sat on top of a front desk inside.
Nobody ever sat at that desk, said Angela Galicia, who works two stores down at Mark Anthony’s Spa and Salon. Men would sometimes come and go from the front entrance, she said, but mainly the traffic would be in the back, a gray door with no handle.
‘Close to home’
When Galicia, 26, arrived at work Thursday morning, she found police raiding the place. One woman was in handcuffs and two younger women stood next to her.
“It’s just weird, so close to home,” Galicia said.
About four miles down the road, a multicolored sign reading “Massage” flashed outside the front of Foot Ways Spa. Like Elin, the door was locked but the glass was tinted.
A busy restaurant and nail salon flank the spa.
Those who worked at nearby businesses said they had no idea anything illicit might have been happening there — they rarely saw anyone come in or go out.
Jeanie Trochez, who owns Texan Mattress, which is also located in the same strip mall as Foot Ways Spa, said she never saw the front door open.
But Trochez, 41, said that when she’d take out the trash sometimes, she’d notice that the back door was left ajar.
At the Bellaire Boulevard location, a building with a brownbrick exterior, residents live behind spaces converted into massage parlors, all of which were closed. All of the blinds were closed and signs switched off.
Employees at a nearby tailor — the only business open in the area — did not speak English.
Dunman said victims lived in cramped quarters inside these locations and were coerced with threats to stay inside. He said two or three women lived in a small room.
Nearby massage rooms were small and drab. Police found condoms in these rooms, but Dunman declined to say what other evidence was collected as part of the raids.
“Some people have a misguided notion that this is about sex,” Ligon said at the news conference. “This is about money — this is about power.”
According to the affidavits for the search warrants, the investigation began in May, when police received a tip from concerned residents in The Woodlands about possible prostitution happening in a house at the end of a short residential road, shaded in pine trees.
Children live in nearby houses, which have brick exteriors and neatly trimmed lawns.
Sharon Jensen, who lives across the street from the house targeted by police, remembered first noticing the cars a few months ago. They would come, park for a halfhour and leave. She said they were nice cars, big SUVs and BMWs, and they came at every hour of the day.
Jensen noticed men and women loitering outside. She said in the beginning she watched as the house installed saunas and showers.
“They would be hanging out there waiting for the next customer to come through,” Jensen, 67, said. “It’s like they just couldn’t get the vibe that this is a quiet neighborhood with kids.”
Months of surveillance
The tip led to months of intense surveillance — one camera was placed at Jensen’s home, she said. Police watched as vehicles would arrive to pick up or drop off girls, often with a suitcase and some plastic bags, according to the affidavit. Dunman said these often contained all of the victims’ possessions.
Neighbors found a lewd advertisement online that directed people to the Woodlands address, according to court papers, which provided the following account:
Police soon found several such addresses with similar ads, four of which included the locations of Thursday’s raids. The surveillance broadened to these locations as well. Every couple weeks, the photos of women who appeared in the ads would be displayed under new locations. Police said they saw the suspects involved in pickups and drop-offs.
Police conducted the raids and arrested the four suspects, but prosecutors said Wang fled by foot.
Dunman said that while authorities knew there were a dozen locations around Montgomery and Harris counties, authorities only knew that the victims they had identified were at the four locations raided Thursday. They would have raided The Woodlands home as well, but they said the location was shut down a few months ago.
Dottie Laster, a human trafficking consultant, said the scheme was typical of other human trafficking schemes.
“What they do is operate in plain sight but also by moving around a lot so the victims can’t form relationships,” she said.
She said the population of the northern Harris County-southern Montgomery County area drives demand there, but so does the wealthy clientele.
Laster said that several years ago, human trafficking seemed like an accepted part of the city. She is pleased to see efforts like those in Montgomery County — a long time coming, she said.