SUSPECTED BROTHEL RAIDED BUSINESSES ALLEGEDLY HID SMUGGLING RING.

Byline: - Staff and Wire Services

The owner of a suspected Van Nuys brothel was among 18 Los Angeles residents arrested as authorities broke up a ring that smuggled South Korean women into the country from Mexico to work as prostitutes, authorities said Friday.

In a related case, law enforcement agents also arrested more than two dozen people in Northern California on allegations of smuggling foreign women into the country through Canada, officials said.

The Southern California arrests were carried out in Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Anaheim and other cities by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents assisted by local law enforcement. About 550 agents and officers arrested 18 people who were allegedly involved in a smuggling scheme believed to have brought hundreds of South Korean women to work as prostitutes, said U.S. Attorney Debra Wong Yang.

``This type of criminal organization exploits the hopes and dreams of immigrants,'' Yang said.

Twenty-three co-conspirators, including five who remain at large, face charges that include harboring and transporting illegal aliens for prostitution.

The arrests included Kyung Hee Heo, also known as Susan, who owned Casa Mia, which was the front for a brothel in Van Nuys, according to an affidavit by Jennifer Eisner, a special agent for ICE. Heo also operated a brothel under the guise of the Harvey Pain Clinic in Los Angeles, as well as one in Illinois, according to the affidavit.

In a telephone conversation recorded by Eisner, Heo told another suspect that customers paid her girls between $60 and $200 for sex, according to the affidavit. Heo also discussed smuggling women from Korea with another suspect, according to the affidavit.

The investigation centered on a group called the Jung Organization that allegedly smuggled women into the U.S. from South Korea and provided them to brothels that were housed in massage parlors, spas and acupuncture clinics.

The co-conspirators allegedly recruited prospective prostitutes in South Korea and smuggled them into the U.S. from Mexico or Canada, sometimes on illegally obtained visas, according to the affidavit. Some of the women allegedly paid $16,000 to be smuggled and were expected to work as prostitutes to repay their debts.

The investigation uncovered ``one of the largest smuggling and prostitution rings ever uncovered in Southern California,'' said Marcy Forman, who heads the Office of Investigations at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In the Bay Area investigation, about 400 federal, state and local agents searched about 50 Bay Area brothels, homes and businesses and arrested 27 suspects on Thursday night, said U.S. Attorney Kevin V. Ryan.

About 100 women, mostly Korean nationals, were taken from the raided properties to an undisclosed location where they were being cared for and interviewed by authorities, Ryan said.

``This investigation is aimed at stopping the horrific, demeaning and oftentimes brutal practice of smuggling and trafficking human beings into the U.S. for illicit purposes,'' Ryan said.