Bordeaux : deux sœurs chinoises à la tête d’un réseau de proxénétisme jugées jusqu’à jeudi
Two Chinese sisters accused of pimping, nine owners suspected of having rented their apartments hosting the passes of prostitutes: the trial of a prostitution network operating throughout France opened on Monday before the Bordeaux Criminal Court. For four days, the defendants will have to answer for aggravated pimping.
The two sisters as well as the husband of one of them will also have to answer in particular for trafficking in human beings in an organized gang, aggravated money laundering and participation in a criminal association.
The case began with an anonymous testimony in January 2020 denouncing an incessant coming and going in an apartment in downtown Montauban (Tarn-et-Garonne). The departmental security police intervene in the rented accommodation and discover two Chinese nationals registered on an escort website. After a long work of surveillance and telephone tapping, the investigators of the Specialized Interregional Jurisdiction (Jirs) of Bordeaux go back to the main organizer, Yan Hu, 47 years old.
The “boss”, a mother living in the Creuse
From her house in a hamlet near La Souterraine (Creuse), this mother posted ads on an escort website, rented accommodation in the provinces on Airbnb-type platforms, organized trips and acted as a switchboard operator with customers by setting prices and meeting places.
After having previously worked for other networks, “the boss” had set up her own business in 2019 and then brought from China her sister Xiuqin Hu, two years her junior and domiciled in Clichy (Hauts-de-Seine) to assist her. in his lucrative business, rotating in 17 medium-sized towns in the territory. They supervised a dozen prostitutes, often middle-aged and speaking poor French, who then paid them half of their earnings.
Investigators discovered more than 46,000 euros in small bills at the Creuse residence and nearly 40,000 euros in the Paris suburbs. A portion of the cash was then collected from accounts in China. On Monday, the two women were assisted by translators at the hearing.
He denies having knowledge of his wife’s activities
Despite the incriminating elements, the husband of Yan Hu, a carpenter, has always denied having knowledge of his wife’s activities, that he became a switchboard operator for women practicing only traditional Chinese massages. Justice accuses the owners of the apartments transformed into closed houses of having closed their eyes knowingly.
At the helm, the latter described the same modus operandi: the sisters reserved small apartments in the city center of Montauban, Agen or Blois on the Airbnb platform before renting directly in cash.
They first thought they were dealing with tourists, then became suspicious because of the alerts from the neighborhood or the building guards and the behavior of the tenants, who were silent and “very frightened when they opened the door a crack” to give the cash.
A “good opportunity” for owners
However, denying the lure of profit, the defendants admitted for some their “negligence”, for others “the lack of evidence”, or the fact of not imagining “such a network” behind acts and gestures which do not ” didn’t look at them.”
The proposal of the “Chinese” has become a “good opportunity”, especially for those who had location problems: “They are not fussy and they agree to pay very high rent”, revealed the president of the court Charles Moynot.
Prostitution, “on the impression that in the minds of the owners, it doesn’t matter,” he again castigated in front of the owners who were not very vocal. Judgment is expected on Thursday.