5 Indicted in Kidnapping and Sex Slavery Investigation

Five Chinese nationals have been indicted on charges of conspiring to kidnap a 22-year-old Chinese woman and force her to serve as a prostitute at their brothels, including sites in the San Gabriel Valley, federal prosecutor Michael J. Gennaco said Monday.

The federal indictment alleges that three brothers, their uncle and the wife of the eldest brother used the woman as a virtual sex slave between 1994 and 1996. After tricking her into coming to New York, the defendants told her that she owed them a debt, the indictment alleges. Some of the defendants extorted, raped, assaulted and beat her at various locations, most recently in Alhambra, Gennaco said.

The oldest brother, Wang Yong Can, 26, will be arraigned July 8. Wang Yong Tan, 21, and Troy Hong Yee, 25, will be arraigned July 1 in Los Angeles. The remaining two defendants, Wang Yong Ming and Li Ming Li, are fugitives, Gennaco said.