STILLWATER, Minn. - A Blaine man stands charged with five criminal counts related to sex trafficking after he was arrested in a sting conducted by detectives in Washington County.
Prosecutors say 28-year-old DongZhu Jiang was arrested after picking up an alleged prostitute from a hotel in Maplewood. Members of Washington County's special Human Trafficking Unit later recovered more than $27,000 cash from his residence.
A criminal complaint says the investigation that led to the charges began February 15, when a member of the Human Trafficking Unit became aware of a large-scale prostitution operation operating out of an apartment in St. Louis Park. Officers executing a search warrant found two females inside the apartment who did not speak English. The apartment had two bedrooms which contained only a bed and a nightstand stocked with condoms and sexual aids. There were used condoms discovered in garbage cans.
Investigators linked the operation to advertisements that were active in Washington County. Undercover agents were able to trace those ads to a hotel in Oakdale where they observed a number of males entering and leaving a room. One of those males was followed and pulled over by police, and told them he had responded to an ad on Backpage.com and had sex with a woman for $150.
Further surveillance led agents to another hotel for an arranged sexual encounter, but instead had hotel management evict the trafficking victim. When a car came to pick her up that vehicle was followed, and eventually authorities arrested the driver, DongZhou Jiang.
When questioned, investigators say Jiang told them he was just a driver who picked up would-be prostitutes when they arrived at the airport and collected money from their sexual activities to "hold" it for them. He said the victims "need" him because they can't speak English and need transportation to and from hotels.
A search warrant on Jiang's residence revealed bank deposits for large amounts of currency and envelopes and a briefcase containing more than $27,000.
The criminal complaint says on February 21 investigators learned that Jiang is also the subject of a sex trafficking investigation of an operation run out of a massage parlor in that city, and also an alleged operation run out of an apartment Jiang leased in St. Paul.
Additional charges are currently pending.
Hotels Play Critical Role
The arrest of Jiang hinged upon detectives working with hotel management at the Emerald Inn in Maplewood, and now Washington County is working to build on that cooperation with other hotels.
"I think hotels sometimes don't get the credit that they deserve," said Imran Ali, Assistant Washington County Attorney and head of the Washington County Human Trafficking Unit. "The hotel workers are really on the front line for us. They see it and they're the first ones to encounter it."
In the coming months, Ali says the Washington County Attorney's Office will be working with local law enforcement and Washington County Public Health to spread awareness across the hospitality industry.
"We're going to be looking at training, not only the owners of the hotels but also all of the employees," Ali said.
Lowell Johnson, Washington County Director of Public Health says inspectors who visit hotels will help facilitate some of that training.
"We're all in this together so we think it's a nice role since we're already present in those facilities, to be doing our part to stop trafficking," Johnson said.
That training will begin with simple observation.
"For example, minimal luggage," Ali said. "If they're there for a week it shows that they're probably not staying there for the week or there is something else there."