Posted on 10/03/2020 9:13:22 AM PDT by ransomnote
LOS ANGELES – A federal grand jury today returned a superseding indictment that charges a San Gabriel Valley woman with sex trafficking five immigrant women by hiring them to work at massage parlors and forcing them to engage in commercial sex acts.
Mei Xing, 59, a.k.a. “Xing Mei,” “Anna,” and “Boss,” of San Gabriel, is charged with five counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion. Xing previously was indicted on June 12 on one count of sex trafficking, and today’s charging document adds four additional victims.
According to the superseding indictment, from July 2016 to October 2018, Xing ran a sex trafficking operation that targeted immigrant women. An affidavit previously filed in this case alleges that Xing owned and operated several massage parlors in the San Gabriel Valley cities of El Monte and South El Monte.
The victims reported that Xing pressured them into performing commercial sex acts at the massage parlors, court papers state. Xing allegedly coerced victims by all manner of threats, including threating to report their prostitution to police, threatening to expose their immigration status, and implicitly threatening to have them murdered. Xing allegedly told the victims she could make good on her threats because of her relationships with the government, the police, and the criminal underworld, according to court documents.
Xing has been in federal custody since her arrest in this matter in April. She is expected to be arraigned on the superseding indictment in the coming weeks. A December 15 trial date previously was set in this case by United States District Judge Otis D. Wright II.
An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
If convicted, Xing would face a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in federal prison for each count and a statutory maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
The investigation was conducted by the Los Angeles Regional Human Trafficking Task Force, which included agents with the FBI and deputies with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Damaris Diaz and Scott M. Lara of the Violent and Organized Crime Section.
I hope these people get deported after they do their time.
With mandatory minimums, she could well die in prison.
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