Rosemead Pair Held on Pandering Charges

Four Thai women smuggled into the United States expecting to work at factory jobs instead were forced into prostitution by a Rosemead couple to earn $35,000 to cover the fee for their passage, authorities said Sunday.

Tai Pham, 23, and his wife, Suphonphan Woods, 29, were arrested by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies on suspicion of pandering after a search warrant was served on a four-bedroom house where the women were allegedly kept at gunpoint. The pair were being held without bail and could face additional federal and state charges, sheriff’s spokeswoman Diane Hecht said.

The women, who are between 22 and 26, had their passports confiscated by their captors and were held at the Rosemead home, which was “completely locked up with guards,” Hecht said.

The women, who were reportedly in good condition, were no longer at the house Sunday and neighbors seemed unaware of the activities alleged to have occurred there. Sheriff’s officials and representatives of the Immigration and Naturalization Service said they did not know where the women, who were in the country illegally, were staying.

“They are not in custody,” said sheriff’s spokesman Angie McLaughlin. “They are being taken care of.”

Investigators believe five other women were brought over in the same manner and either paid off their captors or escaped, Hecht said.