03.07.08
Five charged over ‘$3m sex trafficking ring’
A GROUP of South Korean women were falsely lured to Australia and forced to work up to 20 hours a day in a Sydney brothel, police say.
Federal Police officers raided six inner-Sydney properties yesterday, arresting three women and two men allegedly linked to a sex trafficking syndicate worth more than $3 million a year.
“Police will allege the syndicate recruited women in Korea by deceiving them about the conditions under which they would be employed and then organised their entry into Australia under false pretenses,” the Australian Federal Police said today.
A 46-year-old woman from Greenacre in southwest Sydney, a 42-year-old woman from Hornsby in north-western Sydney and another 35-year-old woman are due to appear in Central Local Court today.
They are charged with offenses including people trafficking, deceptively recruiting for sexual services, dealing in the proceeds of crime worth more than $1 million, and arranging a non-genuine marriage.
Two Sydney men, aged 23 and 28, have been charged with knowingly conducting a business involving the sexual servitude of others and will appear in court at a later date.