By Ray Sanchez, Deborah Feyerick and Lawrence Crook III
January 30, 2014
Photo courtesy of nation.time.com
(CNN) – The 18 operators of a high-end escort service allegedly banking on Super Bowl week to deliver “party packs” of cocaine and prostitutes have been charged with drug and sex trafficking, New York authorities said Thursday.
The nearly year-long undercover investigation discovered that in addition to selling the “party packs,” the ring allegedly laundered the illegal proceeds through front businesses that included a clothing wholesaler, a wig wholesaler, a limousine service and a beauty supply wholesaler, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in a statement.
The ring targeted wealthy customers in New York for large events, authorities said. Last week, a text message was blasted to frequent customers noting that “new sexy & beautiful girls R in town waiting for u.” The enterprise also ran numerous advertisements on the Internet and on public access television.
Last year alone, the ring made $3 million dollars in credit card sales, authorities said.
Schneiderman said the ring involved thousands of clients and hundreds of prostitutes, primarily women from Korea brought by ring members to the United States.
“Every two months they would bring in a new wave of girls and they increased the importation… because of the increase in demand that accompanies the Super Bowl,” Schneiderman told CNN’s Deborah Feyerick.
Schneiderman said authorities were identifying the sex trafficking victims “to try to get them out of this cycle of captivity, poverty and abuse.”