Dozens Arrested in Alleged Sex Ring

More than two dozen people were arrested after police broke up an alleged prostitution ring that operated out of apartment complexes and business offices in Orange and Los Angeles counties, authorities said Thursday.

The ring ran about 25 operations in the Southland and the prostitutes were all Chinese nationals, most of whom were in the United States on work visas, police said.

Police said they arrested Trisni Tedjasutisno, 30, Qiong Feng Chou, 52, and her son, Kit Poon, 32, on Tuesday at an Irvine apartment from which they were allegedly operating. James Konakowitz, 45, was arrested at an apartment in Santa Clarita. All were alleged to be ringleaders and were booked on suspicion of pimping, police said.

The four allegedly placed ads on the Internet and in Chinese-language newspapers “explicitly inviting women to work as prostitutes because they didn’t think the police could read Chinese,” Huntington Beach Police Lt. Dan Johnson said. The Police Department has Chinese-speaking officers, he said.

The investigation began last April when Huntington Beach investigators saw an ad in an alternative newspaper offering Chinese therapy, massages and bubble baths.

Responding to the ad, an undercover officer was directed to an apartment in Huntington Beach. Inside, a woman offered massages and sex for money, Johnson said. Detectives later arrested the woman on suspicion of prostitution, and raided the apartment, where they found documents that led them to other locations.

The alleged ring relocated frequently, usually after neighbors complained, during the investigation by Huntington Beach and Los Angeles police.