A Queens grand jury indicted two Flushing men on charges of sex trafficking, promoting prostitution, and other related crimes allegedly for holding a 43-year-old woman against her will at an East Flushing brothel and forcing her to engage in sex acts.
A third Flushing man was criminally charged for promoting prostitution. The victim arrived from China in November and was taken to the location where her cash and jewelry were confiscated.
Ringleader Xu Cheng Sun, 30, of Roosevelt Avenue, was arraigned on April 10 and ordered held without bail. Jingchao Zhang, 29, of Kissena Boulevard, is in custody on prior weapon possession and promoting prostitution charges and is expected to be arraigned on May 1. Sun, along with co-defendant Peilong Tang, 46, of 37th Avenue, were additionally arraigned on a criminal complaint charging them with promoting prostitution.
According to the charges and investigation, on Jan 31, an undercover officer answered an online prostitution ad and was directed to go to a brothel located on 162nd Street in East Flushing. Once there, Zhang opened the door and led the officer to the second floor, where he met with Sun, who pointed to at least ten women and said sex with each would cost $120. Two women led the officer to a bedroom and agreed to have sex with him for cash. The undercover officer notified members of his team who raided the brothel. Sun jumped out a second-story window and fled the scene. Police found a loaded 9 mm Smith & Wesson pistol under a towel on a bedroom nightstand.
One of the women at the brothel later told investigators that she arrived at JFK International Airport last fall from China. She was picked up with three other women and taken to a house in a black car in an unknown location. She was locked in a room with other women, and a man took away her gold bracelet and $2,500 in cash. When she and the others refused to give up additional possessions, they were kicked and punched repeatedly. The 43-year-old woman was separated from the other women days later and taken to various locations in Queens and Brooklyn to engage in prostitution. If she refused, she was beaten. Around Dec. 1, 2024, the victim heard several people talk about selling her for $8,000, and shortly after that, another woman took her passport.
In mid-January, the woman was ultimately transported to the brothel on 126th Street in East Flushing, where she was forced to continue engaging in prostitution, allegedly by defendants Sun and Zhang. Sun is alleged to have licked her if she refused to engage in prostitution acts, and Zhang allegedly threatened her that there were guns in the house.
Zhang was arrested on Jan 31. Sun was arrested along with Tang during a separate sting operation at the brothel on Sunday, April 8.
“These defendants are charged with treating a woman as if she were property and forcing her to engage in prostitution,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said. “As alleged, the victim arrived in this country, had her possessions taken from her, and was ultimately trafficked in New York City by these defendants.”
Sun was arraigned on April 10 before Queens Supreme Court Justice Peter Vallone, who remanded him into custody without bail and ordered him to return to court on May 1. If convicted, he faces up to 25 years in prison. Sun, along with Tang, were additionally arraigned before Queens Criminal Court Judge Sharifa Nasser-Cuellar on a criminal complaint charging them with promoting prostitution. They were ordered to return to court in June and face up to 2 ⅓ to seven years in prison if convicted. Zhang faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted.
DA Katz announced the creation of a Human Trafficking Bureau in May 2020 to combat sex and labor trafficking by aggressively prosecuting traffickers and buyers of sex and will also connect survivors of trafficking with meaningful services to empower them to escape their traffickers and provide community outreach, education, and information aimed toward preventing and identifying trafficking in Queens.
“My Human Trafficking Bureau is dedicated to eliminating this degrading enterprise from our communities and helping survivors, like the brave woman who came forward in this case, to recover,” Katz said.
