Agents with the Department of Homeland Security HSI in Arizona coerced suspected human trafficking victims to perform sexual acts on them during a three-year investigation that later collapsed after the officers' conduct became publicly known. The investigation—dubbed 'Operation Asian Touch'— saw federal agents pay for and receive at least 17 sexual acts from 'Asian females' working in eight different massage parlours in Mohave County, over a five-month period in The sex-trafficking probe began in May after Havasu police received complaints that local massage parlors were offering erotic extras to their foot and back rub services.
The HSI were called in by police in following suspicions the women might be victims of human-trafficking. Internal ICE documents show the offices were given permission by their supervisors to go through with the sexual acts, research from the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at Arizona State University suggests.
Initially, Garcia said he was told, agency officials in Washington DC, 'wanted heads to roll,' but the issue quietly went away. The U. Attorney's Office received a 'brief' call from ICE internal investigators, but in the end only a low-level supervisor was disciplined. The case began unraveling in the fall of after defense attorneys obtained some of the evidence prosecutors planned to present.
Mike Wozniak, who briefly represented one of the alleged traffickers, recalled his shock listening to audio recordings from the investigation. Wozniak said he called the lead prosecutor to confirm what he was hearing, and she did. Of those reports, instance after instance of an undercover federal agent telling a masseuse to 'masturbate him' is documented, Reason reported.
The agent then 'asked her to take off her clothes. The woman put a condom on the agent and 'attempted to perform oral sex,' according to the report. He stopped her immediately, the officer said, pulled off the condom and told her to masturbate him instead.
