Washington County Attorney Pete Orput
The Washington and Ramsey County Attorneys Wednesday announced multiple racketeering and sex trafficking charges against four suspects in Minnesota and California. The Victims–most of whom were Asian nationals–were required to work 12- to 14-hour days and had to pay traffickers house fees, travel costs and hotel expenses.
Washington County Attorney Pete Orput says the operation was run out of Irvine, California and the women were trafficked across the country, including in Oakdale, Cottage Grove, St. Paul, Maplewood and Fargo, North Dakota. The four charged were 28-year-old Jiang Dongzhou, of Blaine: 48-year-old Jing Hong, of Irvine, California; 49-year-old Sophia Navas, of Chino Hills, California; and 23-year-old Wu Fangyao, of Irvine, California.
Orput compares the way the operation ran to Uber and he says men would answer ads in backpage.com…
Orput says in the larger context, charges like the ones filed Tuesday should lead us to “ask questions about how we’re raising boys to be men, it just does, because the demand is so high…what’s going on?”