CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- A Bridgeport man was arrested by Cook County Sheriff's Police and charged with promoting prostitution, Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart announced Saturday.
42-year-old Man Zhang, also known as Peter Zhang, was arrested Friday after members of the Sheriff's Police Special Victims Unit executed a search warrant on his apartment and also rescued two victims of sex trafficking.
The investigation was launched after SVU members received a tip Sept. 29, from the National Human Trafficking Hotline that multiple young women were being trafficked out of the building where Zhang resides, police said.
Investigators recovered $3,000 in cash, approximately 20 cellphones used to arrange "dates" for victims, contracts between Zhang and the victims, hundreds of condoms, boxes of lubricant used for sex, and a surveillance system that monitored the exterior of the building and the apartment where the first victim was located.
Text messages from Zhang to the first victim warning her that the investigators were outside and not to say anything to the undercover officer, police said.
Both women were offered social services by the Sheriff's Office and were released without charges.
Zhang was charged with promoting prostitution within 1,000 feet of a school, police said. He appeared in court Saturday, where he was given a $100,000 bond and ordered to surrender his passport.
