Sex-trafficking ring busted

A group of three people who conned young women with promises of jobs but instead forced them into prostitution has been busted, Minhang District prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said one of them surnamed Hu claimed to run an employment agency and put out fake job ads on online recruitment website.

Hu’s accomplice surnamed Ye lured two women — both under 20 years of age — to leave home in Changzhou City in Jiangsu Province and apply for jobs in Shanghai.

On reaching Shanghai, they were sold to a man surnamed Gu, who operated an illegal massage parlor in Minhang and forced them into prostitution, prosecutors said.

The matter only came to the light after one of the two victims, identified as Xiaofei, managed to escape and report to the police in June last year.

Xiaofei said Hu approached her when she was looking for jobs on the Internet. He offered her a position in a local bar. During the fake interview, Hu and Ye told her she could earn more at a karaoke venue in Shanghai.

Xiaofei said she agreed to the offer and Hu put her up in a hotel in Shanghai. Once in the city, her mobile phone and ID card were taken away and she was sold to Gu.

There, she met other victims of the trio.

She said Gu abused her and forced her into having sex with customers at the massage parlor but she resisted and took the chance to escape.

A restaurant owner took her to the police station.

Police raided the massage parlor and the other girls rescued. Gu was caught during the raid, Hu in November last year and Ye in March this year.

Except Ye, the other two have been jailed.

Gu was sentenced to six years behind bars and Hu got 10 and half years, while Ye is awaiting trial.