Violent Queens Sex Trafficking Ring Busted: Feds

QUEENS, NY — More than a dozen undocumented New Yorkers were trapped in a violent Queens-based sex trafficking ring with tentacles that stretched across the U.S., federal prosecutors said.

Nine people face federal prostitution and sex trafficking charges in a 20-count indictment unsealed Tuesday that details disturbing allegations of abuse, Brooklyn federal prosecutors announced.

Some of the women targeted by the ring, most of whom were undocumented Chinese immigrants, were robbed, beaten — sometimes with hammers and bats — and threatened with death if they did not do as they were told, prosecutors allege.

"Definitely don’t make a sound," one member instructed another. "Beat her to the point where she can’t fight back."

Women were sent across the country — sometimes for weeks at a time — in order to have sex for money, prosecutors said.

The cash was then used to promote the sex ring and pad the pockets of its members, federal prosecutors said.

The Queens-based sex ring operated in Hawaii, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oregon, Texas and Washington between April 2019 and September 2021, according to prosecutors.

Seven of the nine members named in the indictment — Siyang Chen, 32, Siyu Chen, 24, Bo Jiang, 26, Rong Rong Xu, 29, Jiarun Yan, 28, Carlos Cury, 41, and Zerong Tang, 24 — are based in Queens, prosecutors said.

"As alleged, the defendants targeted vulnerable women for sex trafficking, and brutally assaulted the victims to enforce loyalty to the criminal enterprise," said Breon Peace, U. S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

"Human beings are not property, and the victims in this case, regardless of their immigration status, deserve to be free from violence and coerced sexual activity."