The last of four suspects involved in an international sex trafficking ring that preyed on foreign-born women in Minnesota has pleaded guilty to her involvement in the operation, authorities say.
Sophia Wang Navas, 50, pleaded guilty Monday in Washington County District Court to one count of racketeering as well as a second count of aiding and abetting in sex trafficking, court records say.
The Chino Hills, Calif., woman helped lead the criminal organization from her base on the West Coast, authorities say. She faces up to 12 years in prison when she is sentenced in late October, Washington and Ramsey county authorities say.
Her defense attorney, Charles Hawkins, will argue that she deserves less time. He could not be reached for comment.
Two others implicated in the organized-crime ring have already been sentenced. Hong Jing and Fangyao Wu, also of California, were sentenced previously to 8 1/2 years and 20-years probation respectively. Dongzhu Jiang, of Blaine, will be sentenced in mid August on racketeering and sex trafficking counts.
“We have all heard, and seen, that sex trafficking is prevalent in the metropolitan area,” Washington County Attorney Pete Orput said in a statement issued Tuesday. “It has been too long overlooked. These convictions reflect the commitment to go after sex traffickers aggressively.”
The sex-trafficking ring ran from February 2015 until February 2017 and involved nearly 20,000 advertisements for sexual services placed on Backpage.com, according to legal documents.
Jiang, the local point-person in the ring, coordinated the logistics of the enterprise in Minnesota and North Dakota, finding establishments and private homes for the women to work out of and collecting the money paid to them by clients, charges say.
He told officers that the women, who ranged in age from 32 to 45, were forced to earn at least $800 a day or risk getting fired. He also said they had to pay for food, housing and transportation.
Jiang admitted that some of them were raped, beaten and robbed by clients, charges say.
Most of the women were foreign-born, mainly Chinese or Korean nationals. Locally, they served clients across the Twin Cities, including Oakdale, Cottage Grove, St. Paul, Blaine, Maplewood and St. Louis Park.
Navas and Jing headed up the enterprise on the West Coast.
Wu’s role in the ring was much more limited, authorities have said.
When announcing charges in the case in March of 2017, Washington County Attorney Pete Orput described a Cottage Grove home used as a meeting place for clients and sex workers.
Little more than two mattresses were found inside the townhome, along with “a line of men” waiting to have sex with three women inside the residence.