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Accused sex trafficker extradited from California

COURTESY DEPT. OF PUBLIC SAFETY

Wei Li, left, and Biyu Situ

A man who Honolulu Prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro says brought women to Hawaii and the U.S. mainland from China to work as prostitutes in massage parlors is in custody at Oahu Community Correctional Center.

Honolulu police arrested Wei Li at Honolulu Airport when he arrived from California on extradition Friday. Li’s bail is $200,000.

An Oahu grand jury returned an indictment in June last year charging him with racketeering for operating or owning an illegal prostitution business. Authorities in California arrested him in April, and he had been fighting extradition. Li, 42, lists a Los Angeles address as his residence.

Li’s co-defendant, Biyu Situ, owner of the now-defunct Mayflower Massage parlor, turned herself in to authorities in June last year and is free on $100,000 bail. She too is charged with racketeering for operating an illegal prostitution business. Her trial in state court is scheduled for November.

Situ is also facing federal charges for allegedly trying to bribe a U.S. Department of Homeland Security investigator to protect her business from law enforcement raids and for help in gaining U.S. citizenship. Her trial on the federal charges is also scheduled for November in U.S. District Court.

The state indictment against Li and Situ was the first in Kaneshiro’s latest strategy of using state racketeering laws to crack down on prostitution. He has since secured other racketeering indictments against the owners and operators of two other Honolulu massage parlors.

One response to “Accused sex trafficker extradited from California”

  1. allie says:

    I am afraid there are a great deal more of these kinds of criminals out there. Many more….

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