Many neighbors saw the men come and go. A few contacted the police, but many more remained silent about the suspected prostitution and human trafficking ring operating out of quiet residential homes in western portions of San Francisco.
Even after law-enforcement officials raided six houses and arrested some of their neighbors last week, many residents of the predominantly Asian Pacific American communities still said they saw and knew nothing.
Silence about such illegal activity is common in the APA community, said Julie Lee of the San Francisco Neighbors Association. “First, there is a tradition to just mind their own business,” she said. “People always worry that there might be some illegal groups behind them. They are afraid of retaliation.”
The six women detained in the raids are being treated as human trafficking victims and given help to migrate legally to the United States if they cooperated with authorities. The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement are investigating the extent of the people-smuggling operation and whether it has wider ties to organized crime, said the agency’s head Mark Wollman at on Jan. 23.
Agents descended on the alleged brothels on 19th Avenue, 33rd Avenue, Carl Street and Buckingham Way on Jan. 15.
Federal agents arrested the six women, along with an alleged john, and Yuen Ling Poon, who was described as a 34-year-old U.S. citizen who is the “principal” of the Sunset District-based illegal operation. A second Chinese-born woman, Bo Sing, 37, has been charged with immigration violations.
Poon was charged with conspiracy and human trafficking and released on a $75,000 bond with orders to appear in U.S. District Court on Feb. 5.
But Poon’s attorney Lawrence Wong hit back on Jan. 23, indicating that he would file a motion to demur the case.
Wong said the affidavit against his client gave evidence to suggest that she was running a house of prostitution, yet she was actually charged with conspiracy to transport individuals for interstate commerce, a charge that had nothing to do with prostitution. Wong added that Poon was not guilty of either human trafficking or running a brothel.
Wollman would not specify how the women came to the United States, but he did say they appeared to have been “mentally and emotionally coerced.”
Wollman talked broadly about the problem of human trafficking in the Bay Area.
“Individuals are preyed on and physically and mentally coerced, told they can’t leave home, escorted from point A to B,” he said.
Assemblymember Leland Yee, (D-San Francisco), was “shocked and dismayed” that such activity was still prevalent and that it was found in the family-oriented neighborhoods of the Sunset.
One measure Yee is considering is the creation of abatement proceedings against property owners, similar to those that have been used against landlords who let their buildings become crack houses. In the meantime, Yee hoped the crackdown would spur new activism in the APA community.
“We need to do something about this,” he said. “These women were recruited from across the world. They touch our family as part of our Asian culture.”
Supervisor Fiona Ma, whose district covers the Sunset, has been working closely with the Police Department on tips of illegal activity in the Sunset. The community as well as the police should have zero tolerance for houses of prostitution, she said.
“The community should report any suspicious behavior, whenever possible, to my office or to their local police station. They can do it anonymously,” she said. “If people don’t report it, then we can’t fight it.”