NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — Nine members of a violent Queens-based nationwide sex trafficking ring are facing a 20-count indictment unsealed in Brooklyn federal court on Tuesday, the Department of Justice announced.
The indictment charged Siyang Chen, Siyu Chen, also known as "Ban Ban," Bo Jiang, Meizhen Song, also known as "Die Die," Rong Rong Xu, also known as "Eleanor," Jiarun Yan, also known as "Raymond Yan" and "Mike," Jilong Yu, Carlos Cury and Zerong Tang with racketeering, sex trafficking, Hobbs Act robbery and violent assaults.
Eight defendants were arrested on Tuesday and were arraigned in court.
According to court documents, the defendants were involved in a violent and organized racketeering enterprise that operated a lucrative prostitution business across the United States between April 2019 and September 2021. The operation recruited women, most of whom were from China and lacked legal status in the U.S., to engage in prostitution for the enterprise.
Prosecutors allege victims were sometimes required to provide copies of their identification documents so that the defendants could maintain even more control over them. The operation arranged for the recruits to travel from New York to various locations in the U.S., stay in hotels and enterprise-operated apartments for weeks at a time and engage in commercial sex. The money was then collected by the women, which was used to enrich members and associates of the organization as well as promote its sex trafficking and interstate prostitution ring.
Between Jan. 8, 2020, and Sept. 1, 2021, members and associates of the enterprise directed and conducted more than 15 violent assaults on women across five states.
Officials allege members would commit violent assaults to enforce discipline and believed their conduct would not be prosecuted because the victims were not U.S. citizens and engaged in commercial sex work.
Members and associates allegedly would instruct people to impersonate Johns in order to gain access to the women's hotel rooms, where they would bind them with zip ties, beat them with hammers, bats, and other blunt objects and rob them. According to prosecutors, severe beatings on the victims were even encouraged if the initial attack did not sufficiently injure them.
In one phone message that was recovered by law enforcement, a member instructed the enforcer: "Beat [her] to death tomorrow. If she dares fight back, beat her more viciously. Get some results from the beating. Can’t waste the money." In another recovered chat, a member advised, "One person choke her by her throat, the other person strike her four limbs to death. Definitely don’t make a sound. Beat her to the point where she can’t fight back."
"As alleged, the defendants targeted vulnerable women for sex trafficking, and brutally assaulted the victims to enforce loyalty to the criminal enterprise. Human beings are not property, and the victims in this case, regardless of their immigration status, deserve to be free from violence and coerced sexual activity," said United States Attorney Breon Peace.
He added, "It is our hope that today’s arrests will bring them some measure of justice for the horror that they have endured. "This case is another example of our Office’s longstanding commitment to bringing to justice sex trafficking organizations that exploit and dehumanize victims for financial gain."
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