Police bust gangs selling women into sex slavery
Source: Global Times Published: 2014-11-20 0:23:01
Police in Dingyuan county, East China's Anhui Province recently cracked down on two gangs who abducted women and sold them as sex slaves at prices ranging from 10,000 yuan ($1,634) to 20,000 yuan.
Police said that they have rescued four victims in October and captured seven suspects including one gang's ringleaders surnamed Kong and Zhang, reported Anhui Business Daily on Tuesday.
Members of the two gangs lured women from cities such as Nanjing, Chuzhou, Hefei, and Bengbu and transferred them to an agent surnamed Yan, said the police.
Yan trapped the abducted women in a special-made "cell" with no window except for a narrow door and two palm-sized holes on the side walls, reported the Hefei-based news portal anhuinews.com.
At least ten women from Anhui and nearby Jiangsu Province have fallen victims to the gangs over the past five years, according to the police.
"Women who appeared in railway stations alone were more likely to be targets," said the police.
A gang member surnamed Zhang confessed that to better control the abducted women, they would keep at most three women in one room, and "it was impossible [for them] to escape."
Many victims said that if they tried to escape, they were beaten savagely.
When the traffickers prepared to sell one of the women, they took them outside for a walk to show they had no physical disabilities.
"After I was sold to someone, the buyer also beat up and sexually assaulted me," said one victim named Xiao Qin (pseudonym).
Police said that a call from a woman in August, who said that she was abducted to Dingyuan and sold to a father and a son, led them to the gangs.
Through the father and son's confession, police arrested Yan, finding papers in his house on which were written buyers' numbers, sales contracts and letters of guarantee.
Many buyers returned the women, saying the "goods" were faulty on account of mental issues suffered by some victims.
To help guard against this outcome, Yan decided to sign a contract with buyers in advance.
"We guarantee the buyers the women they brought were not sterilized or married. We are not responsible for other things," read a letter on March 18 with the amount of 16,000 yuan.
The women abducted were sold at different prices based on their ages and appearance.
Police said the ringleaders made deals with accomplices whereby "the one who lured the women took the most money."
