VANCOUVER - A 47-year-old man has been arrested on charges he was running several brothels in Metro Vancouver staffed by women police say were lured from Hong Kong and forced to work as sex slaves.
Jian Feng "Michael" Li of Burnaby is accused of living off the avails of prostitution and faces four counts of keeping a common bawdy house.
His arrest came after a two-year investigation by the RCMP's Federal Border Integrity Program into human smuggling.
Police say Li was sponsoring women from Hong Kong and then forcing to work in the sex trade when they arrived in Canada.
They say he was using Craigslist to advertise brothels in Surrey, Burnaby, Coquitlam and Richmond and was making up to $40,000 a week with the women.
Police say language barriers and the reluctance of some victims to testify have made human trafficking charges difficult, but federal investigators are still working on the case.
