Four Indian-Americans arrested for allegedly running human trafficking racket in Texas

 An investigation by the Princeton Police Department busted the racket

PTI, July 09, 2024 : Four Indian-Americans, including a woman, have been charged with allegedly running a human labour trafficking scheme out of a home in the US state of Texas, a media report said.

The Princeton Police Department released details of an investigation that led to four people being arrested after 15 women were found inside the home as alleged victims of human labour trafficking, news portal Fox4News.com said on Monday night.

Chandan Dasireddy, 24, Dwaraka Gunda, 31, Santhosh Katkoori, 31, and Anil Male, 37, all arrested in March, are now charged with trafficking of persons, a second-degree felony, and more arrests are expected, the channel reported, quoting police.

The authorities found that all the young women, living in the same home, were forced to sleep on the floor at a home on Ginsburg Lane in Collin County, Princeton. There was basically no furniture inside the home at the centre of human trafficking, just a bunch of computer electronics and blankets, police said.

Another news portal, McKinney Courier-Gazette said officers with the Princeton Police Department were dispatched on March 13 to a residence regarding a welfare concern and suspicious circumstance.

After further investigation of the initial report, Princeton Police CID detectives obtained a search warrant for the home of Santhosh Katkoori, where 15 adult females were located. During the investigation, it was discovered that the females were forced to work for Katkoori and multiple programming shell companies owned by him and his wife, Dwaraka Gunda, it said.

While the search warrant was executed, multiple laptops, cell phones, printers and fraudulent documents were seized. It was later determined that multiple locations within Princeton, Melissa, and McKinney were involved in the forced labouring of the victims, including adult males, the portal said, adding, additional laptops, cell phones, and documents were seized from the other locations.

The original concern was raised by a pest control company, which was called for possible bed bugs. Once inside, the inspector noticed that each room had 3-5 young females sleeping on the floors. There were also large amounts of suitcases. The company contacted police, Fox4News.com added.

The news portal quoted Princeton Police Sgt Carolyn Crawford who said over 100 more people are involved, more than half of them victims.

However, she did not reveal what type of labour operation was happening.