A federal raid of nearly a dozen Colorado spas has uncovered an international operation that shuttles women in and out of Colorado almost daily to work as prostitutes, according to court documents obtained Monday by the Rocky Mountain News.
Sources familiar with the investigation say that many of the women end up as sex slaves.
The court documents detail an organization that moves women around the country through a web of massage spas. The women are driven from spa to spa by "taxi drivers" and kept in check by the spas' owners, known as "cleaning ladies."
The group responsible for nearly 40 spas in the state is part of an Asian organized crime syndicate with national and international links, according to the documents.
Operation Rising Sun has been investigating the international money laundering and human trafficking ring since summer 2001, but the case became public Nov. 19 after a federal court document was accidentally left unsealed. A week later, search warrants for 11 of the spas under investigation were unsealed.
The spas named in the warrants are the Ace Spa, Aloha Spa, Ann Spa, Cosmos Spa, Maize Spa, Sun Gold Spa, Ten Essentials and VIP Salon, all in Denver; Ginza Spa in Aurora; Spring Spa in Longmont; and Sun Health Spa in Del Camino.
The search warrants detail how the women are smuggled from South Korea into California and then driven into the state by men known as taxi drivers.
The taxi drivers, who transport the spas' cash earnings back to California, also drive the women to spas in other states when they get in trouble with the law.
Once a woman is taken to a spa, she is placed in a room where she is forced to pay off her smuggling debts by being a prostitute, often living in the same room in which she has sex, according to the warrants.
The women also typically have to pay rent for the tiny rooms in which they live.
The rooms are filled with the clutter of temporary living: tiny televisions, refrigerators, microwaves, luggage and mattresses on the floor.
While living at a spa, the women have to answer to the "cleaning lady," a woman who tracks the women's earnings and makes sure they are fed and clothed.
Although a spa owner is typically the cleaning lady, the names of the owners usually don't show up on any paperwork. Instead, spa owners use fake names or the names of employees or family members, according to the warrants.
On the day investigators raided the Colorado spas, they found that most of the women had been in the state less than a month, some as short as a day.
Many told investigators they had spent their time in the U.S. in different states, coming to Denver from California, Arizona, Washington or Texas.
The operation, which initially focused on the investigation of prostitution, has since broadened to include possible money laundering and document counterfeiting. Investigators say the women buy fake Colorado driver's licenses and Social Security cards for up to $5,000, which is added to their debt.
Even after a woman manages to work off her debt, which typically takes two years, she often remains a prostitute, one source told the News.
The women don't speak English, are in the country illegally and know no other life, the source said. "They feel like they have no other option."