Omaha Hotels Linked to Human Trafficking, FBI Says
Multiple people used hotels in the Omaha area to carry out human, drug, and sex trafficking, federal authorities have said in new charging documents.
Law enforcement officers executing search warrants on August 12 at the hotels recovered 10 minors who were allegedly being forced to work at the facilities for long hours, according to an affidavit filed in federal court by a special agent with the FBI. Children were previously rescued from the sex trade at the hotels. Another 17 adults, many of them illegal immigrants, were also freed from allegedly being victims of a labor trafficking conspiracy.
Officials said that multiple people at the four hotels kept the workers in unclean and unsafe lodging and barely paid them. At one point, a source working for the federal government witnessed cockroaches crawling on some of the immigrants while they were sleeping on the floor of a room at one of the hotels.
Officials also said that the scheme involved encouraging sex trafficking at the hotels and that hotel management and employees participated in abusing the people who were trafficked.
Multiple defendants allegedly shielded drug and human traffickers from law enforcement, and drug use was rampant at the facilities, with overdoses common and needles littering various areas, according to the affidavit.
While investigating the crimes, authorities found that four of the five people who were ultimately charged are in the United States illegally; one has a pending asylum claim.
They also discovered that the multi-faceted scheme allegedly included arranging for other illegal immigrants to work at the hotel after they crossed the border and taking illegal immigrants to Washington state to obtain fake driver’s licenses.
Authorities charged Ken Chaudhari, 36, and relatives-his wife Falguni Samani, 42; his brother, Matt Chaudhari, 33; his brother-in-law, Amit Chaudhari, 32; and Mahesh Chaudhari, 38, a mentee of Ken’s.
“There is no evil greater than the evil that seeks to trap, oppress, and exploit human beings for profit or pleasure,” U.S. Attorney for Nebraska Lesley Woods said in a statement.
“Where that evil exists, Nebraska law enforcement working together at the federal, state, and local levels, as occurred in this case, will seek it, find it, root it out, and ensure every rescued victim has an opportunity to obtain justice and freedom from their captors.”
The investigation was spurred by calls for law enforcement assistance at businesses by Ken Chaudhari or his brothers, according to the FBI. Minors who were subject to sex trafficking were recovered from the hotels before. And on multiple occasions, U.S. Marshals tracked fugitives to one of the hotels but met with obstacles in locating and arresting the fugitives.
By Zachary Stieber | The Epoch Times
