Eighteen people are suspected for their involvement in a huge high-end sex ring right before they were set to see huge dividends during Superbowl week in New York City. They were known for their “party packs” which were a combination of prostitutes and cocaine, for which they would sometimes charge upwards of $10,000.
The bust came after a nearly year-long investigation, according to New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. They discovered that the ring allegedly laundered the proceeds through front businesses including a wig wholesaler, a clothing wholesaler, a beauty supply wholesaler and a limousine service. Last year alone, the group made $3 million in credit card sales.
The ring specifically targeted wealthy customers in New York for large events, so the Superbowl would have been a big boon. The group ran numerous ads on the internet and commercials on public access television (how dumb is that?). A text blast went out last week saying “new sexy & beautiful girls R in town waiting for u.”
The girls were mostly from Korea, brought into the United States by ring members.
“Every two months they would bring in a new wave of girls and they increased the importation… because of the increase in demand that accompanies the Super Bowl,” Schneiderman told CNN’s Deborah Feyerick.
Schneiderman said authorities were identifying the sex trafficking victims “to try to get them out of this cycle of captivity, poverty and abuse.”
“This is not viewed any longer as a victimless crime,” he said. “This is viewed as something where woman are seized in their own countries, they’re blackmailed and held in captivity. This is a crime with a lot of victims. We are approaching these cases now by identifying the woman as victims, not perpetrators.”
Schneiderman said that the ring involved thousands of clients and hundreds of prostitutes. The Organized Crime Task Force and the NYPD found that the enterprise spanned Manhattan, Brooklyn, Long Island, Queens and several states. Most of the eighteen suspects have been arrested.