The two women as well as the husband of one of them will also have to answer for trafficking in human beings in an organized gang, aggravated money laundering and participation in a criminal association.
Two Chinese sisters accused of pimping, nine owners of having rented their apartments hosting the passes of prostitutes: the trial of a prostitution network operating throughout France opened on Monday, October 24 before the Bordeaux Criminal Court.
For four days, the defendants will have to answer for aggravated pimping committed in an organized gang. The two pimping sisters as well as the husband of one of them will also have to answer in particular for trafficking in human beings in an organized gang, aggravated money laundering and participation in a criminal association.
Long monitoring work
The case began with an anonymous testimony in January 2020 denouncing an incessant coming and going in an apartment in downtown Montauban (Tarn-et-Garonne). The departmental security police intervene in the rented accommodation and discover two Chinese nationals registered on an escort website.
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After a long work of surveillance and telephone tapping, the investigators of the Specialized Interregional Jurisdiction (Jirs) of Bordeaux go back to the main organizer, Yan Hu, 47 years old. From her house in a hamlet near La Souterraine (Creuse), this mother posted ads on an escort website, rented accommodation in the provinces on Airbnb-type platforms, organized trips and acted as a switchboard operator with customers by setting prices and meeting places.
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Brothels
Having previously worked for other networks, “the boss” had set up his own business in 2019 then brought from China his sister Xiuqin Hu, two years his junior and domiciled in Clichy (Hauts-de-Seine) to assist him in his lucrative business, shooting in 17 medium-sized towns in the territory. They watched and timed a dozen prostitutes, often middle-aged and speaking poor French, who then paid them half of their earnings.
The investigators discovered more than 46,000 euros in small bills at the Creuse residence and nearly 40,000 euros in the Paris suburbs. Part of the cash was then transferred to accounts in China. On Monday, the two women were assisted by a translator at the hearing.
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Despite the incriminating elements, the husband of Yan Hu, a carpenter, has always denied having knowledge of the pimping activities of his wife, whom he thought was a switchboard operator for women practicing only traditional Chinese massages. Justice accuses the owners of the apartments transformed into brothels of having closed their eyes knowingly. At the helm, the latter described the same modus operandi: the sisters reserved small apartments in the city center of Montauban, Agen or Blois on the Airbnb platform before renting directly in cash.
They first thought they were dealing with tourists, then became suspicious due to alerts from neighbors or building guards and the behavior of tenants, who were silent and “very frightened when they opened the doorto give cash. However, denying the lure of profit, the defendants admitted for some their “neglect“, for others “the lack of evidence“, or the fact of not imagining a “such network“behind facts and gestures that do not”didn’t look at them“.
The proposal of “Chinese“has become a”good opportunity“, especially for those who had rental problems: “they are not fussy and they agree to pay a very high rent“, estimated the president of the court Charles Moynot. Prostitution, “it seems that in the minds of the owners, it does not matter“, he still lambasted in front of the owners who were not very talkative.
The requisitions and pleadings are expected on Wednesday, the judgment on Thursday.
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