High-End Bay Area Apartment A Secret Brothel; Runs Multi-Million Dollar Human Trafficking Operation

A Santa Clara County, California tech businessman and his wife will be tried on human trafficking charges after they allegedly operated a multi-million dollar international network of South Bay brothels, according to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office on Friday.

The Milpitas couple, David Davies, 57, and Larong Hu, 38, were apprehended by law enforcement on Wednesday in the 100 block of Tiger Lily Street. They are facing charges of felony human trafficking, pimping and pandering, and money laundering, according to SFGate.

The probe into the couple's inner dealings was initiated in December of 2019 after the Milpitas Police Department (MPD) and the DA's office identified a brothel in the City of Milpitas.

A current tenant asserted that rent in the building can be as high as $5,000 a month. However, it remains unexplored whether the tenants or apartment staff were aiding and abetting the alleged brothel being contained in a high-trafficked area, NBC Bay Area reported.

Following a broader human trafficking probe, additional brothels under the couple's name were further located throughout the U.S. by the MPD, U.S. Department of State Diplomatic Security Services, and the DA’s Bureau of Investigations via human trafficking sites. It prompted search warrants to be executed in Milpitas, San Jose, and Palo Alto.

The suspects reportedly transformed at least six high-end apartments into brothels in San Jose and Milpitas at the heart of Silicon Valley. They would then deploy the low-paid women to other U.S. cities to sustain their illegal work, according to Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen.

The brothels, which were marketed through Backpage and the couple's website, paved the way in the human trafficking of more than 100 sex workers women from China, South Korea as well as Eastern Europe, who were rotated through the couple's furtive operation, CBS SF noted.

Davies and Hu had also allegedly seized the female victims' passports upon arrival in the U.S. Six of the female victims, who were coerced to have sex with between 10 and 15 men a day, have since been rescued by police, Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Patrick Vanier noted.

The distressed women are now receiving critical services from Community Solutions, an organization that supports victims of human trafficking.

The couple, who are being held on a $350,000 bail each, will remain in custody at least until their respective arraignments. They were slated to be arraigned Friday afternoon at the Hall of Justice in San Jose. However, Hu’s arraignment was postponed until next Tuesday to give time for her Mandarin interpreter to make it to court.