Couple charged with trafficking girls at illicit therapeutic massage parlors

A Michigan man is accused of serving to his spouse run a human trafficking operation by way of illicit therapeutic massage parlors the place the pair allegedly pressured girls to stay and work lengthy hours for low wages, in accordance with the authorities. 

Following an investigation by Farmington Hills police, 57-year-old Paul Richard Katterman II has been charged with operating a human trafficking enterprise, industrial sexual exercise, protecting a home of prostitution, conducting a felony enterprise and failure to file taxes.

Based on Fox 2 Detroit, the Livonia man and his spouse, Zixuan Wan, allegedly trafficked 4 non-English-speaking girls from China. The 4 girls labored at three totally different places in Farmington Hills, Westland and Commerce Township and had been basically prisoners, in accordance with Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald. 

Get Our Newest Information for FREE

Subscribe to get each day/weekly electronic mail with the highest tales (plus particular gives!) from The Christian Submit. Be the primary to know.

“Trafficking has develop into a complicated felony enterprise that generates enormous money income for the criminals who run them. We should use each obtainable instrument and useful resource to free victims, prosecute traffickers, and seize their ill-gotten cash,” McDonald stated in an announcement.

“The Farmington Hills Police, in cooperation with the Human Trafficking Activity Power and the Prosecutor’s Workplace, has continued to work this investigation and collect the proof that allowed us to convey these further costs. We won’t cease.”

Wan, 44, faces new costs, together with cash laundering, conducting a felony enterprise and failure to file taxes, in accordance with Fox 2 Detroit. Because the native information outlet reported final month, Wan was charged with two counts of human trafficking and one depend of protecting a home of prostitution with 4 victims.

The suspect was arraigned and had her bond set at $100,000. She was additionally ordered to give up her passport and put on a GPS tether, Fox 2 Detroit reported. 

Based on a March 12 press launch, authorities arrested Wan following a four-month investigation led by the Farmington Hills Police Division Directed Patrol Unit. The division labored in collaboration with the Westland Police Division Particular Investigations Unit and the Oakland County Sheriff’s Workplace Particular Investigations Unit. 

The investigation began in November after Farmington Hills Police DPU officers turned conscious of an unlicensed therapeutic massage enterprise working in Farmington Hills. The DPU realized that the Westland Police Division SIU and the Oakland County Sheriff’s Workplace SIU had been investigating Wan and her therapeutic massage parlor enterprise. 

“A coordinated effort started, which required giant quantities of interagency cooperation, data and useful resource sharing,” the press launch acknowledged. “All through the investigation, the Farmington Hills Police Division’s intelligence analyst offered vital insights by analyzing information, communication and journey patterns, and figuring out key connections, which considerably superior the investigation and led on to actionable intelligence.” 

The joint investigation crew performed a search warrant on March 5, and the trafficking survivors had been among the many discoveries that day. Along with the victims, the investigators discovered $140,000 in money. 

After authorities acted on the search warrant and rescued the survivors, the trafficking victims had been delivered to Widespread Floor and CARE Home of Oakland County, in accordance with the press launch. 

“The profitable final result of this investigation is the results of the sturdy partnerships that the Farmington Hills Police Division maintains with businesses all through Oakland County and past,” Farmington Hills Police Chief John Piggott stated in an announcement. 

“I’m frequently impressed with the women and men of the Farmington Hills Police Division who’re consistently in search of out coaching alternatives and bringing the abilities realized again to the division,” the police chief added. 

“These expertise instantly result in regulation enforcement intervention rescuing these weak girls from additional exploitation,” Piggot concluded. “Due to their glorious work and our collaboration with outdoors businesses, a harmful human trafficker will probably be held accountable.”