By Dan Oakes
Members of a syndicate alleged to be illegally managing more than 100 sex workers at brothels across Melbourne have been arrested in raids by federal and Victorian police.
Police swooped on addresses across the city on Tuesday, arresting five people and charging them with living off the proceeds of crime. It is alleged the syndicate made more than $500,000 in the past five months.
The five people arrested include Mae Ja Kim, who is believed by police to be the central figure in the syndicate and has been linked previously to the Top on Tope brothel.
Photographs taken in Ms Kim's luxury Southbank apartment show massed rows of perfume bottles, racks of luxury shoes and designer handbags and two safes. But Ms Kim was dressed in a more casual grey tracksuit top when she was led away by police.
A police officer searches one of the four brothels raided on Tuesday.
Fairfax Media and the ABC's Four Corners program revealed in 2011 that police were investigating claims that legal brothels in Melbourne were being infiltrated by organised criminals, who allegedly used them as a front for human trafficking and sex slavery.
The people arrested on Tuesday were allegedly managing brothels despite being unlicensed, by using frontmen who did have licences. The brothels allegedly run by the syndicate include Top on Tope and Shop 39, both in South Melbourne, Tender Touch in West Melbourne and the Candy Club in Richmond.
An Australian Federal Police spokesman said that after investigations police might recommend to the Business Licensing Authority — which regulates brothels — that the brothels' licences be cancelled or suspended.
Police executed 13 search warrants on Tuesday at the four brothels, houses and other businesses in South Melbourne, West Melbourne, Richmond, Southbank, Clayton, Flemington, Donvale and the CBD.
Police arrest Mae Ja Kim on Tuesday at her Southbank apartment.
They seized about $1 million worth of assets, including four apartments in the CBD, Southbank and Donvale and three luxury cars.
A man named De Jun ''Kevin'' Zheng is awaiting trial for the murder of 27-year-old Adrian Papo outside another South Melbourne brothel, Madam Leona's, in February 2009.
Rows of high-end shoes found at Mae Ja Kim's apartment.
Mr Zheng bashed Mr Papo to death after the young man tried to help his girlfriend, a Korean prostitute and alleged sex slave, escape from the brothel, but Mr Zheng told police he acted in self-defence after Mr Papo had attacked him and no charges were initially laid.
Police reopened the investigation into the killing after fresh information uncovered by Fairfax Media was given to the State Coroner and the Office of Public Prosecutions. Mr Zheng was charged in July last year with Mr Papo's murder.
Designer handbags found in Mae Ja Kim's apartment.
Mr Zheng bashed Mr Papo to death after the young man tried to help his girlfriend, a Korean prostitute and alleged sex slave, escape from the brothel.
Top on Tope was then partly destroyed by fire in August 2010 in what police believe was an arson attack linked to a turf war between sex industry figures implicated in human trafficking and sex slavery.
Fairfax Media reported in 2011 that two AFP investigations had identified at least three Melbourne brothels and two in Sydney linked to an international sex slavery ring.
Rows of perfumes found in the Southbank apartment of alleged brothel syndicate leader Mae Ja Kim.
AFP co-ordinator crime operations Ian Bate said the success of the latest operation, codenamed Kitrino, was the result of a partnership between the AFP and Victoria Police.
Victoria Police Crime Command Detective Superintendent Rod Jouning praised the AFP.
Where the brothel raids took place.
"These crimes are particularly difficult to investigate but the AFP has shown they have the expertise to gather the evidence required to bring these individuals to justice," Superintendent Jouning said. ''Victoria Police has been working with the AFP for many years now and this is yet another example of how collaborative law enforcement can have successful outcomes."
The five people arrested on Tuesday will appear in court on Wednesday morning.
Mr Bate said that five handbags, worth about $10,000 each, and $50,000 cash was also seized.
He said there had been no evidence that the sex workers had been sex slaves or the victims of human trafficking, and all were working legally.
The five arrested people were described as the king-pins of the operation, but Mr Bate said more "underlings" may be charged. He would not confirm the number of people believed to be involved.
"We allege (they) have been living off and making significant profits from illegal management of women in the sex industry in Victoria," he said.
Investigations are continuing into the organised crime syndicate, and whether the licensed managers of the brothel were complicit in the alleged scheme.
There were no concerns with the accommodation the sex workers had allegedly been paying the crime syndicate to live in, and the women were working as normal.
Detective Superintendent Jouning said there were no indications that the involvement of organised crime syndicates in Victorian licensed brothels was widespread.
"It's our view that this is not a large issue, but the exploitation of women in any sense is intolerable," he said.
"I think (licensing systems) are quite sound, it's a matter of how they're policed."