20 Arrested in Korean Vice Ring Raid
An eight-month investigation into a suspected prostitution ring in the San Gabriel Valley ended Friday night with the arrest of about 20 prostitutes and their pimps.
Los Angeles County sheriff’s vice officers raided five residences and motels that authorities believe are part of a network of Korean houses of prostitution.
A sheriff’s spokesman said the operations are franchised businesses that often appear in storefront locations.
The spokesman said that two of the alleged houses of prostitution each employed 10 to 12 Asian women and were “generally guarded by male suspects with handguns and shotguns.”
The prostitutes who work for these houses “themselves become the victims. They are prisoners of the organization. Some have been murdered as a matter of maintaining discipline,” the spokesman said.
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