PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – A Canadian man was extradited to the U.S. and arraigned in federal court in Oregon on Friday for leading an international sex trafficking organization in the U.S., Canada and Australia.
Authorities identified the man as 49-year-old Zongtao Chen, also known as Mark Chen, of Toronto. Chen made a federal court appearance in the District of Oregon Friday for racketeering charges. He is detained until further court proceedings.
Court documents say Chen led a sex trafficking organization that recruited women, primarily from China, to travel to other countries for prostitution.
Authorities said this trafficking network had a “’boss’” in charge of a brothel in hotels or apartments in multiple cities. They also said, dispatchers would schedule dates with the women.
More than 30,000 phone numbers and records were found in a computer program by law enforcement. They said Chen also promoted prostitution in Portland, Tigard and Beaverton.
On November 15, 2018, a federal grand jury in Portland indicted Chen along with four co-conspirators—40-year-old Weixuan Zhou, also known as Marco Zhou, of Guangzhou, China; 36-year-old Yan Wang also known as Sarah Wang, of Temecula, California; and 35-year-old Chaodan Wang, and 38-year-old Ting Fu, both of Beaverton. They were also charged with racketeering.
On January 15, 2019, authorities conducted sting operations across the U.S., targeting Chen’s sex trafficking network along with other networks. The FBI seized 500 domains associated with trafficking networks and 25 location-specific sub-domains.
Around that time, Chen was arrested by Toronto law enforcement per a request by the U.S., according to authorities.
On November 2, 2021, Canada’s Minister of Justice approved Chen to be extradited to the U.S. for prosecution. Chen was transported to Portland this week.