Under our noses?

On Friday, the South China Morning Post carried an article about a prostitution smuggling ring that was broken up in June in Shenzhen. The Mainland Media only reported it this week, though I haven't found any details in the English-language mainland news.
What strikes me as odd about the story is that it seemed that all of this transpired while I was visiting China last. The young women put up in flats in Shekou, the smuggling ring organized by a couple with a small shop on the Shekou coast...it seems this happened quite close to our apartment, if not in our building. I asked Randy if he had heard anything about it, and he hadn't, but then again he has been working a lot and staying at the plant most of the time since we left. We agreed that even 200 new young girls in Shekou hanging around wouldn't have been that noticeable, which is pretty sad.

Guangdong border police have arrested at least nine mainlanders for smuggling more than 200 young women into Hong Kong from Shenzhen for prostitution, mainland media reported yesterday.
The gang members were caught in June and will be charged with people smuggling, according to the Guangzhou-based Information Times.


Speaking publicly for the first time about the case, Shenzhen officers from the provincial border defence bureau said the gang leader, identified by the surname Chen, targeted women working in city bars and pubs, the report said.

He promised the women they would be sent to Hong Kong and be provided with work permits and good job opportunities.

Authorities recovered one of his notebooks that contained the names of more than 200 women from Hunan, Hubei, Guangxi, Jiangxi, Anhui and Henan.

The would-be migrants were initially sent to five flats in Shekou, in Shenzhen's Nanshan district, and monitored by three men before being transferred to a couple who owned a small shop on the Shekou coast.

From there, the women were sent by a small boat to prostitution gangs in Tuen Mun.

The officials said that until they arrived in Hong Kong the women were unaware they would be forced into prostitution to pay for their passage. The smugglers were paid 3,500 yuan for each woman and ferried more than 200 into Hong Kong between April and June 24, when they were caught.

Border defence officers intercepted the Shekou couple and two women during a boat crossing and then raided the five flats and arrested the rest of the gang.

Guangdong border officials said people smuggling into Hong Kong was becoming more common.