VIEWS FROM THE EDGE
Undercover agents with Homeland Security investigating human trafficking in Arizona repeatedly paid for and engaged in sex acts with suspected victims, alleged Cronkite News and the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism.
That encounter, along with HSI’s refusal to let its agents testify at trial, torpedoed a case that was more than three years in the making. All felony charges against the accused ringleaders were dropped. And the women likely were retraumatized, sex-trafficking experts said.
Defense attorneys, whose clients went free because of HSI’s mishandling of the case, were outraged to learn of the agents’ “investigative techniques.”
The HSI had an online Underground Operations Handbook, statements by local police and the federal government's response appear to refute the allegation that these actions committed by rogue agents.
Over a nearly five-month period, the HSI undercover agents documented in graphic detail 17 allegedd sexual encounters with women working in eight massage parlors. Only two women were designated as victims, but their whereabouts are unknown. Two other women who were charged with prostitution were initially put in ICE detention, although only one still faces deportation hearings.
“It is difficult to exaggerate the extent to which the law enforcement community collectively turns a blind eye when its members engage in misconduct,” said Clark Neily, vice president for criminal justice at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington, D.C.
Dominique Roe-Sepowitz, who serves on the Arizona Human Trafficking Council, called the case a “terrible demonstration of our behavior as a country.”
“Their job is to collect evidence and testify about it in court,” she said, referring to HSI agents. “They don’t actually have any other function. Their whole job was to testify and close that case. They are not fulfilling their duties.”
EDITOR'S NOTE: The five-part investigation into these alleged acts by Cronkite News and the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism can be read here.
Undercover agents with Homeland Security investigating human trafficking in Arizona repeatedly paid for and engaged in sex acts with suspected victims, alleged Cronkite News and the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism.
The victims were allegedly forced to live and work in filth and near darkness, the federal agent said, surviving on only the tips they received from performing massages and sexual favors. Lon Weigand, the deputy special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Arizona, described them as “Asian females” who may be sex-trafficking victims.
Based on the investigative report, police undercover agents said they were told by HSI that its policy permitted undercover agents to engage in sex acts with suspects.
The report also maintains that some supervisors knew about this activity. When Homeland Security Investigations refused to let its agents testify in a case that took three years to build, all felony charges against the ringleaders were dropped.
“That’s our tax money,” said defense attorney Josephine Hallam. “Shouldn’t they be at the border, or doing something with terrorists rather than getting sex acts?” he said to Cronkite News.
According to Reason, agents dubbed their investigation Operation Asian Touch.
An HSI memo obtained by Reason describes an undercover federal agent telling a masseusse “to masturbate him” or to strip naked or go topless while performing a sex act on him.
The report also maintains that some supervisors knew about this activity. When Homeland Security Investigations refused to let its agents testify in a case that took three years to build, all felony charges against the ringleaders were dropped.
“That’s our tax money,” said defense attorney Josephine Hallam. “Shouldn’t they be at the border, or doing something with terrorists rather than getting sex acts?” he said to Cronkite News.
According to Reason, agents dubbed their investigation Operation Asian Touch.
An HSI memo obtained by Reason describes an undercover federal agent telling a masseusse “to masturbate him” or to strip naked or go topless while performing a sex act on him.
Defense attorneys, whose clients went free because of HSI’s mishandling of the case, were outraged to learn of the agents’ “investigative techniques.”
In December 2019, according to Reason, prosecutors dropped all charges against Amanda Yamauchi and Dean Michael Bassett, who they suspected in being the ringleaders of the “transnational criminal organization.” Reason maintains authorities were willing to let the suspects go rather than answer questions about its agents engaging in sex acts during their investigation.
“In my experience in law enforcement, these types of things do not just happen in one spot,” said defense attorney Brad Rideout who represented two women charged in the case.
Homeland Security says it always keeps the victims as the focus of its investigations.
“HSI is committed to placing the safety of potential victims at the forefront of every investigation,” said Yasmeen Pitts O’Keefe, a spokeswoman with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, HSI’s parent agency. “Conduct by a limited number of HSI agents involved in the investigation was not consistent with HSI policy,” she said to Cronkite News and the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism.
Homeland Security says it always keeps the victims as the focus of its investigations.
“HSI is committed to placing the safety of potential victims at the forefront of every investigation,” said Yasmeen Pitts O’Keefe, a spokeswoman with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, HSI’s parent agency. “Conduct by a limited number of HSI agents involved in the investigation was not consistent with HSI policy,” she said to Cronkite News and the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism.
Over a nearly five-month period, the HSI undercover agents documented in graphic detail 17 allegedd sexual encounters with women working in eight massage parlors. Only two women were designated as victims, but their whereabouts are unknown. Two other women who were charged with prostitution were initially put in ICE detention, although only one still faces deportation hearings.
Except for a low-level supervisor, none of the agents involved in the scandal was disciplined, according to the report.
“Their job is to collect evidence and testify about it in court,” she said, referring to HSI agents. “They don’t actually have any other function. Their whole job was to testify and close that case. They are not fulfilling their duties.”
EDITOR'S NOTE: The five-part investigation into these alleged acts by Cronkite News and the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism can be read here.
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