23 September 2023 , 23:35
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Sex traffickers behind a "heinous" ring took selfies after a victim was beaten with a rolling pin.
Manager Yuan Yuan Chen and her boss Rong Rong Xu were part of a Flushing-based sex ring in Queens, New York, that extended to Oregon and included hundreds of sex workers. Most of the women were migrants from China who had reportedly been forced to hand over their passports, according to U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace.
Ahead of their arrest Yuan Yuan Chen and Rong Rong Xu had taken selfies just hours after one victim was allegedly “viciously beaten by a rolling pin,” prosecutors said. Prosecutors said both women made numerous trips from Flushing’s Chinatown to China. Yuan Yuan Chen, 30, was indicted on September 15 after Xu, 31, was arrested last year.
The selfie they took together was included in paperwork prosecutors filed to deny Chen bail. Prosecutors claim the pair ruled with an iron fist, circulating videos of workers being tied up and beaten by hammers, wrenches, and baseball bats to deter them from working for competitors or for themselves.
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The depraved ringleaders of a Queens-based, nationwide sex-trafficking and prostitution ring with “significant” ties to “China”One victim was allegedly duct-taped and beaten with a baseball bat as the women made depraved jokes about the attack, according to court filings. Xu allegedly text her partner: "Serves this woman right to get beaten. Really, brought this evil on herself. After a period of time, will need to beat her again." Chen allegedly responded with a laughing/crying emoji, reports
Later that day, Xu told Yuan Yuan Chen that it was “too easy to kill a person in America, that it was like killing a chicken”. On Sept. 14, a judge denied bail for Chen, citing the weight of the evidence and her “significant” ties to China. Xu had traveled internationally 11 times between 2016 and 2019, including five trips to China.
Yuan Yuan Chen and two of her alleged enforcers, Yichu Chen and Johnnie Kim, were collared after an investigation by a joint NYPD-FBI task force (@NewYorkFBI/Twitter)Chen reportedly earned about $10,000 (around £8,000) a month, including ($1,225) from a brothel in an undisclosed area of Queens while the organization itself pulled in over $750,000 (£612,795) with accounts held in Xu’s name accounting for approximately half of that money, according to prosecutors.
Police Commissioner Edward Caban said: "The crimes outlined in today’s indictment are among the most heinous we confront." Yuan Yuan Chen and two of her alleged enforcers, Yichu Chen and Johnnie Kim, were collared after an investigation by a joint NYPD-FBI task force, which also conducted raids of brothels along the “Market of Sweethearts” in Corona.