Chinese National Indicted for Running Brothels out of Boston Apartments

A Chinese national living in New York has been indicted for allegedly running a sex-trafficking ring out of several residential brothels located in Boston’s Allston and Brighton neighborhoods.Liu Zengzeng, 40, of the Flushing neighborhood of Queens, was arrested in New York on July 1, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts announced on July 2.Also going by the name of “Bella,” Liu was indicted on June 24 on one count of knowingly persuading an individual to travel in interstate commerce to engage in prostitution and three counts of use of facilities of interstate or foreign commerce in aid of racketeering enterprises.Prosecutors said Liu’s alleged activities spanned 11 months, beginning in August 2025, during which she allegedly recruited women via foreign national middlemen. The women came from several countries, including China, Japan, the Philippines, and Vietnam.The women would engage in commercial sex acts at apartments Liu obtained through fraud via either altered or forged documents, according to prosecutors. The indictment identifies several addresses, including 365 Western Avenue in Brighton, 83 Gardner Street in Allston, and 50 Hichborn Street in Brighton.In October 2025, an FBI task force carried out an operation targeting a website known for commercial sex listings, according to an affidavit, and identified a phone number that an agent acting in an undercover capacity called to negotiate a price of $600 for a sex act. The agent was then told to go to the Gardner Street address.Before the FBI’s undercover operation, the Boston Police Department had become aware of both Western Avenue and Gardner Street addresses.According to the affidavit, after receiving an anonymous tip in August 2025, Boston police investigated both locations. Nobody answered the door, but officers reported hearing people “running, whispering, and moving furniture” inside.“At Gardner Street, a resident complained to [Boston Police] officers about men entering the building and going to the apartment on a regular basis, and that Asian women entered the apartment late at night,” the affidavit states.When the FBI undercover agent arrived at the Gardner Street location, an Asian woman answered the door, who was “dressed in only a bra and underwear,” according to the affidavit.Inside the residence, the FBI task force found a living room with boxes of Kleenex and paper towels “stacked to the ceiling,” along with two bedrooms, each containing a bed and a nightstand topped with bottles of lubricant and rolls of toilet paper.The woman who answered the door told the FBI through an interpreter that she was from Japan and had traveled to Flushing, where friends told her to call a phone number to “make money,” according to the affidavit.The call connected her to Liu, the “boss,” whom she knew as “Bella.” Liu then directed her to Boston and arranged “dates” for her.The Gardner Street apartment “continued to serve as a hub for commercial sex” after the FBI task force’s operation, the affidavit said. It is estimated that there were 51 suspected sex buyers at the location from Oct. 31, 2025, to Nov. 2, 2025, based on surveillance footage, generating the brothel about $40,000.The FBI task force, the Boston police, and the Massachusetts State Police executed a search warrant for the Gardner Street apartment on Nov. 9, 2025.According to the affidavit, they encountered “two sex buyers and three naked or nearly naked Asian females,” and seized nearly $15,000 in cash. Two of the females, speaking through an interpreter, said they came from Japan and that they kept only about half of the money from their “dates,” while the rest would go to Bella.The FBI task force carried out a similar operation in May. Inside an apartment at the Hichborn Street address, agents encountered three females—one from Japan and two from Vietnam. One had bruises on her “knees, legs, and feet” that, according to the affidavit, were caused by sex buyers.“They were not allowed to leave the apartment,” the affidavit states, referring to the three females.As for how they arrived at the apartment, one female said she had traveled to China, the Philippines, and New York to work at Liu’s alleged sex operation, while another said she had traveled from Canada to New York before taking a “Chinese Uber” to Boston, according to the affidavit.“Liu is a member of a sophisticated criminal organization with international ties, one that recruits and facilitates the travel of foreign nationals for the purpose of engaging in commercial sex,” the affidavit states.In total, U.S. authorities seized about $105,000 in cash during their investigation of Liu, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.Prosecutors also alleged that Liu was receiving aid from New York’s Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children and used it to pay for groceries while operating the brothels.Liu is scheduled to appear in federal court in Boston on July 8, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.Liu’s attorney didn’t respond to a request for comment from The Epoch Times.