Top madam earned millions, police say
Police raided the latest "Pinky's Place" in Richmond last week
Police believe they have arrested the No. 1 madam in the Lower Mainland: A female pimp named "Pinky" who allegedly made more than $1 million a year from the sexual services provided by Korean women entering Canada as tourists.
A steady stream of male customers or "johns" followed her business as it moved from house to house in Vancouver and Richmond, until a police raid last week at the latest "Pinky's Place" in Richmond.
"I'm pleased to announce the vice unit has arrested what we believe is the No. 1 pimp or madam operating residential bawdy houses in the Lower Mainland," Sgt. Matt Kelly of the Vancouver police vice unit said Thursday at a joint RCMP-Vancouver police news conference.
"This operation is estimated to generate between $1 million and $1.3 million in tax-free dollars each year," he said.
Despite the magnitude of those alleged profits, Kelly said, the 42-year-old woman now in custody was brazen enough to file for a GST rebate.
"Needless to say, Revenue Canada is also interested in this file and her income," Kelly added.
The accused is Zhe Nai Xu. She is now in custody at the Surrey pre-trial centre, awaiting her yet-to-be-scheduled trial.
Xu faces a host of prostitution-related criminal charges, some of which are punishable by a maximum prison term of 10 years.
She is charged with four counts of transporting a person to a common bawdy house, two counts of keeping a common bawdy house and one count of living off the avails of prostitution.
Police disclosed that they have been looking into "Pinky's" activities since 2003.
That year, they investigated an alleged bawdy house at Main Street and 18th Avenue in Vancouver and another somewhere on Southwest Marine Drive. "Pinky" was found at the bawdy house but wasn't charged.
In 2004, a house near Granville Street and 53rd Avenue was under police watch. Again, no charges were laid. Kelly said investigators still didn't have sufficient evidence to recommend criminal charges.
Then, in 2006, investigators believe the business moved to a house at Kingsway and Wessex Street in east Vancouver. Kelly said warrants were issued by the Vancouver vice unit. But he said "Pinky eluded us at Wessex and we picked up her trail again to 6000-block Granville Avenue and No. 2 Road in Richmond," in late 2006.
"Pinky" was already a "person of interest" for the police in Richmond. At that point, a Vancouver police investigation became a joint Vancouver police-Richmond RCMP investigation.
"We continued on, into January 2007, when we finally tracked her down to 8031 Williams Road in Richmond," Kelly said.
Land registry and property assessment records show Xu is the registered owner of the $951,000 house at 8031 Williams. It's a large, newer home located beside an empty lot with only a PetroCan gas station and a 7/11 convenience store facing the front of the house. Smashed glass from the front window of the house is the only evidence of last week's police raid.
She also owns a $879,000 house at 6000 Granville, which is on the corner lot of a busy intersection with No. 2 Rd. Not a single house faces the property. A high laurel hedge obscures the driveway loop from view.
Xu owned and lived in a $527,000 condominium at 54-7233 Heather Street. It's a corner unit of a large recently built development. The front door is not within view of any of her immediate neighbours. Catalogues and mail on the front stoop were lying uncollected Thursday afternoon.
Restraining orders have already been placed on those properties, effectively blocking the sale of the assets until a possible conviction and court order to forfeit the property to the federal government under proceeds of crime legislation.
Police raided the house on Williams on Feb. 8.
RCMP Cpl. Peter Thiessen said a heavily-armed and armored Emergency Response Team was deployed at Williams, in case it was hard to get into the house or suspects inside had firearms. The RCMP helicopter, Air One, was hovering overhead. In total, about 70 police officers joined the raid.
Thiessen said the house was "heavily fortified," with bars on the windows and the steel-reinforced doors.
Police found seven women and eight male customers at Williams; police arrested Xu at her Heather condo.
Police are still looking for a person that Thiessen described as an "associate" of Xu. They want to arrest Di Chen Li, 35, of Richmond, on charges of living off the avails of prostitution and keeping a common bawdy house.
According to police, the women found at the Williams Road house ranged in age from their early 20s to early 30s. Police estimated that 150 johns a month came through the house. Investigators observed 20 men in one two-hour period. Those men will likely be required to attend an education program.
Kelly said the women went directly from Vancouver International Airport to the house in Richmond and began turning tricks almost immediately.
The Korean women were detained by officials with the Canada Border Services Agency and issued exclusion orders because they working without authorization, agency spokeswoman Janis Fergusson said. She said the federal privacy law prevents her from disclosing whether the women are still in Canada. Another federal agency -- Citizenship and Immigration Canada -- will investigate potential violations of Canada's human trafficking law.
Kelly said the Korean women may not have appreciated what kind of business they would be working for.
"I don't know if their eyes were wide open," he said. "I think they understand what massage means, and it has a sort of different translation sometimes overseas, indicating some type of sexual contact. But I don't know if they were prepared for [the full range of sexual activities] which were expected in these bawdy houses."
Investigators said there is no known connection between the alleged bawdy houses and the 18 massage parlors that police raided last December in Coquitlam, Richmond, Surrey, Burnaby and Vancouver.
