Sex trafficker busted at Mohegan Sun

From the NY Times:

A Queens woman suspected of involvement in a human-trafficking ring that smuggled young Korean women into the United States and forced them into prostitution in New York and elsewhere on the East Coast was arrested while gambling at a casino in Connecticut, immigration officials said Monday.

The woman, An Soon Kim, 52, had been sought by the authorities since at least August 2006, when she was named in a federal complaint describing an elaborate scheme that brought Korean women into the country using false documents and made them work as prostitutes in brothels that masqueraded as massage parlors, health spas and acupuncture clinics, officials said.

Security workers at the Mohegan Sun, a gambling and entertainment resort in Uncasville, Conn., had been on the lookout for Ms. Kim since early December, when she was featured on the television program “America’s Most Wanted” and was recognized by a casino employee, according to the Web site of The Hartford Courant, which quoted the Connecticut State Police.

On Friday, Ms. Kim returned to the resort and was arrested by immigration agents on the casino’s gambling floor, said a statement by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an arm of the Department of Homeland Security. She was found with $17,045, officials said.

Federal investigators first revealed details of the trafficking ring on Aug. 16, 2006, when they announced the arrest of 31 defendants. The suspects were accused of running a network of at least 19 Korean-owned brothels stretching from Washington, D.C., to Rhode Island. Among them were unnamed brothels on 59th Street and West 26th Street in Manhattan, and a spa called the “Hong Kong” in Flushing, Queens, officials said.

The businesses catered primarily to an Asian clientele, officials said, and some made tens of thousands of dollars a month.