By Bay City News.
A joint operation by law enforcement agencies led to the rescue of 18 victims of a Colombia-based sex trafficking ring that operated brothels in hotels in the South Bay, Santa Clara County prosecutors said.
Nine people suspected of working for the union were also arrested in the operation, the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office said in a statement Tuesday.
Agents seized more than $200,000 in cash from the suspects and froze their assets, including cryptocurrency, prosecutors said.
The investigation into the sex trafficking ring began in March 2022, when authorities became suspicious of the activities of a Colombian couple who had previously been charged with human trafficking-related crimes but were out on bail.
Using wiretaps, investigators examined about 30,000 text messages and calls to a phone number. The evidence showed the number was being used to arrange “rendezvous” between sex workers and clients, prosecutors said, adding that traffickers set up a bank of these dispatch phones for clients to schedule sexual encounters with victims at local hotels.
The sex trafficking victims came from South America and Mexico and were kept working seven days a week in hotel rooms in the cities of San Jose and the East Bay Area.
Prosecutors said the victims were forbidden from leaving their hotel rooms without permission, kept under constant surveillance and threatened that if they disobeyed or tried to escape, their families would be harmed.
According to prosecutors, investigators learned through wiretaps that the syndicate was exploiting more than 30 victims. Six more suspects remain to be arrested.
The rescued women receive services such as counseling, medical care and housing assistance, among others. One of the victims, a teenager from South America, was transferred to the Attorney General's Office's Child Advocacy Center for care, prosecutors said.
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