Global Sex Trafficking Conspiracy Spread To Woodbury: Police

STILLWATER, MN — Washington County Attorney Pete Orput Tuesday announced that Sophia Wang Navas, 50, of Chino Hills, California, has entered guilty pleas to racketeering and sex trafficking in Woodbury and other suburbs in the Twin Cities metro area.

Navas will be sentenced Oct. 23 and faces up to 12 years in prison.

In addition to Woodbury, authorities say Navas worked in organized crime to promote the sex trafficking of Chinese women in Oakdale, Cottage Grove, Saint Paul, Minneapolis, Plymouth, Blaine and St. Louis Park.

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The criminal enterprise worked to hide profits made from sex trafficking, police said.

Navas is the last of the four people charged in this organized crime:

• Hong Jing, convicted of racketeering and sex trafficking, is serving 102 months in prison
• Dongzhu Jiang has a sentencing on a racketeering and sex trafficking conviction on Aug. 13
• Michelle Jing was placed on 20 years of probation for her racketeering conviction

"We have all heard, and seen, that sex trafficking is prevalent in the metropolitan area," Orput said in a statement.

"It has been too long overlooked. These convictions reflect the commitment to go after sex traffickers aggressively."

Read the entire criminal complaint below:

Image via Shutterstock