An alleged international sex smuggling syndicate apparently operating under the noses of the police was bust after a raid on a suspected Pretoria brothel.
The raid, carried out by the Pretoria police’s K9 crime prevention unit, saw officers on Wednesday arresting the suspected kingpin of the South African arm of the alleged syndicate, along with four Chinese women.
The women, who have been brought into South Africa over the last year, and the alleged kingpin, who has dual South African and Chinese nationality, will appear in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court later this week.
The raid saw undercover police executing the arrests while posing as prospective clients.
After receiving information about a number of women being held against their will at the Silverton house, which is situated several blocks away from the Silverton police station, police set up the sting operation.
Police said that once inside the house they immediately placed the alleged operator under arrest.
Police discovered and arrested a South African man and one of the three Chinese women having sex in a room of the Van der Merwe Street building. They then arrested another two Chinese women, who officers were told were allegedly willing to have intercourse with them, said a policeman.
Police spokesman Captain Jan Sepato said that during the raid police discovered that the Chinese woman “operating” the house was the alleged kingpin of the South African section of the syndicate.
“The information that we have received indicates that she is allegedly involved in organising the trafficking of Chinese nationals into South Africa for exploitation. We believe she is not operating alone and are hoping to arrest other senior members of this alleged sex smuggling syndicate soon,” he said.
He said that while searching the house police found a room which had been locked. “When the 42-year-old alleged kingpin, refused to open the door police broke it down and discovered that the room was being used to dry abalone. While searching the room police found cocaine hidden inside several drinking straws.
“While police continued to search the house the alleged kingpin apparently tried to bribe one of the arresting officers with R2 000 in cash and the promise of more money if they did not make any arrests,” he said.
Sepato said police confiscated abalone, cocaine, Chinese passports and more than R16 000 in cash.
Speaking about the nationalities of those arrested, Sepato said investigators strongly believed that they had been smuggled into the country as part of a sex trafficking ring.
“We are now following up on information which indicates that these women are not the only ones who have allegedly been smuggled into South Africa by this organisation.
“We believe that this organisation is involved in a number of similar operations around Gauteng and are hoping to make further arrests soon,” he said.
Sepato said that three of the four Chinese women who were arrested in the operation were in the country illegally. He said the four would appear in court soon on charges of prostitution, possession of narcotics and being in the country illegally.
Sepato said that depending on what detectives discovered during their investigation, more charges could be brought against the four. - Pretoria News