The women usually came from California, and would charge between $140 to $180
for 30 minutes to an hour for sex, according to court records. The business
advertised online and via the back page of Westword, and authorities say the
prostitutes and the three people running the ring made enough money to live a
"very comfortable" lifestyle.
Authorities arrested Wai Chong Kong, 38, and his wife, Kit Chi Ho, 43, both of
Highlands Ranch, and Kah Poh Cheah, 28, of Thornton, on Tuesday. All three are
Chinese, authorities said. They are charged in federal court with
transportation for illegal sexual activity and related crimes, a charge
punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
According to court documents, Glendale police received an anonymous letter in
March describing a Korean "sex slave, prostitution ring" operating out of two
apartments ¡X one in Glendale, the other in the area of the Denver Tech Center.
The letter stated that the prostitutes were 19 to 25 years old and that they
were smuggled into the United States and forced to have sex with "Johns." It
also listed the Web site where the advertisement was located and the phone
number that the Johns used to make appointments with the prostitutes.
Police located the ad and the apartments, one at 600 S. Dahlia Circle in
Glendale and the other at 5200 S. Ulter St. in Denver. Both apartments were
leased by Kong, according to court records. In the course of the investigation,
Kong leased another apartment, this on at 3257 S. Parker Road.
For the next few months, officers witnessed men visiting the apartments, often
one after another and for stays of 30 to 45 minutes. In April, six men who made
short visits to the Dahlia Circle apartment were stopped by police. Five
admitted they had paid for sex with the Asian girl inside the apartment; the
fifth said he had received a massage, court records state.
Officers also witnessed Kong and Ho repeatedly visiting the apartments,
sometimes after picking up Asian women from Denver International Airport. They
then would be seen taking the women back to the airport a few days later.
Kong and Ho also made frequent trips to the Thornton home where Cheah lived,
and police traced three separate deliveries from an online condom dealer ¡X
each shipment containing 1,000 condoms ¡X to Cheah's home. A search of the
trash outside Cheah's home also turned up ledgers and other items related to
the prostitution business, police said.
Investigators also interviewed several of the prostitutes. The women said they lived out of state, but that they flew to Denver from time to time to make money. They said they usually charged $140 per customer, and that they would pay $50 of that money to the people who arranged the appointments. They also paid $20 per day for room and board, the women said.
