Video: Seattle sex trafficking ring busted

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SEATTLE – Three businesses, two homes and a boat were raided by law enforcement Tuesday to bust a Puget Sound sex trafficking ring.

A grand jury indicted 36-year-old Donald Kerry Frey of South Lake Tahoe, Calif. and 26-year-old Nguyen Tran Nguyen of Renton. The indictment says the pair conspired to operate brothels disguised as tanning salons and spas.

"The organizers of this illegal network view people as nothing more than currency," said Leigh Winchell, Special Agent in Charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Office of Investigations in Seattle.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office says the businesses raided were The Aloha Tanning Resort in Renton, The Avalon Spa on Aurora Avenue North in Seattle and the Malibu Tanning Spa in Tukwila.

Search warrants were also served on residences in Kent and Renton and a boat called the “Island Girl” moored on Lake Union in Seattle.

The Department of Justice says Frey, Nguyen and another suspect conspired to book air travel and arrange for the transportation of sex workers from other states to work in the businesses.

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A woman is led in handcuffs from a massage parlor in Seattle that authorities say was actually a brothel employing women who were flown to the area for prostitution on Nov. 18. 2008.

The indictment says between 2007 and 2008, women working at the businesses offered to provide sex acts to undercover officers and informants in exchange for cash.

DOJ says every couple of weeks, Frey would fly to Seattle to collect thousands of dollars in cash from Nguyen and other managers at the businesses. Between 2006 and 2008, Nguyen is accused of booking more than 70 flights for women traveling from other states to work in the brothels.

Frey and Nguyen face up to 20 years in prison and $750,000 in fines each if convicted on Conspiracy to Transport Individuals in Furtherance of Prostitution and Money Laundering Conspiracy.