Two Tibetans arrested for sex racket in US

By Lobsang Tenchoe

DHARAMSALA, July 12: Two Tibetan men were charged for their involvement in a sex trafficking operation that preys on Chinese women in the United States.

Tashi Tharchin ( Zhaxi Taxing), 41, from St. Louis Park and Sonam Tsering, 36, from Plymouth, Massachusetts have been charged with sex trafficking and the latter was also charged with promoting and receiving profits from prostitution, reports fox9.com.

Police officers were said to have stumbled upon the sex trafficking ring through a commercial sex advertisement last November on backpages.com for an Asian woman. A number from the advertisement led them to a call center that directed them to the location of the victim, the report added.

A police officer revealed his identity to the victim at an apartment in Edina and interviewed the women using a translator. She told police that she came from China to New York before she was made to work as a prostitute, the criminal report details.

Tashi was identified by the police as one of the main suspects of the ring. He was seen moving items from the Edina apartment to another apartment in Richfield while numerous men went in and out of the apartment stopping only for a short period, the report added.

The women disclosed that Tsering lived with her and she gave him money she earned from prostitution. It was further revealed that he was supposed to pass it along to someone else in the sex trafficking organization. According to the report, Tashi and Tsering’s bank record shows that in less than five months, they have deposited more than $52,000 and $19,000 into their respective bank accounts.

“This is a highly organised, illegal operation that stretched from coast-to-coast in United States. These women are victims who were preyed upon by the sex-trafficking operators and we are going to do everything in our power to disrupt the commercial sex trade in Hennepin County,” the report quoted Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman as saying in a statement.