The latest arrests mark the third phase of an 18-month investigation

October 21, 1999
Web posted at: 2:36 p.m. EDT (1836 GMT)

In this story: 'They are still recruiting' 280-year sentence RELATED STORIES, SITES

FRESNO, California (CNN) -- In the latest crackdown on an Asian gang believed to operate nationwide, 23 California males are named in an indictment alleging girls as young as 12 were raped and forced into prostitution.

The suspects -- ranging in age from 14 to 45 -- and their 18 alleged victims are Laotian-Americans, members of the Hmong ethnic group.

VIDEO CNN's Greg Lefevre talks with authorities about the allegations. Windows Media 28K 80K

VIDEO Correspondent Siobhan Darrow reports on the California investigation that led to multiple rape charges against 23 Hmong men and boys Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K

The Hmong During the Vietnam War, many Hmong -- a Southeast Asian ethnic group -- fought alongside U.S. troops in Laos, then fled after the Communist takeover of South Vietnam in 1975. An estimated 250,000 Hmong refugees now live in the United States. Many have settled in California, Nevada, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and North Carolina. Some of the Hmong people now in the United States say they have had to struggle to raise their children in a culture far different from the clan-based, agricultural world they left behind.

The Fresno County grand jury that issued Wednesday's 826-count indictment was convened after last year's rape of three young girls at a motel.

All but one of the defendants were arrested Tuesday. Thirteen were already in custody in connection with previous rapes. Others were picked up in Nevada, North Carolina and Minnesota.

Three of the suspects are accused of paying for sex with girls. All face charges including rape, false imprisonment, kidnapping, witness intimidation, pimping, pandering and lewd and lascivious acts on a child younger than 14.

"Several of the victims were kept for more than two months against their will," said Fresno Police Sgt. Len Gleim.

Police suspect that members of the Mongolian Boys Society, a predominantly Hmong, Fresno-based gang, are either kidnapping or luring young girls, raping them repeatedly, then forcing them to work as prostitutes.

In some cases, they are taken across state lines for prostitution, police say.

"When these investigations are over, we will have incarcerated the major portion of the Mongolian Boys Society," said lead police detective Jim Olson. "But they are still recruiting, so we don't know when they'll stop."

Fresno County gang officials said the suspects are preying on the girls' youth and their fear of shaming their families, whose silence kept the secret for months.

In Hmong culture, virginity before marriage is valued so highly that a girl who loses that virginity may be looked down upon by their own relatives, even if she is forcibly raped.

"Once we developed their confidence, their trust (and) their respect, they were more willing to talk to us," Olson said.

The suspects range in age from 14 to 45

Tuesday's arrests mark the third phase of a sweeping investigation that dates back 18 months, to the time when three young Clovis, California, girls were gang-raped at a motel in west Fresno.

In that case, defendants received sentences ranging from two to 280 years.

A separate 500-count indictment last year charged 14 defendants, who are scheduled for trial November 15.

Shur Vangyi, an assistant city ombudsman who acts as a liaison to the Southeast Asian community, said the cases are destroying the reputation of the Hmong, who made a mass exodus to America after helping the CIA fight communists in the mountains of Laos during the Vietnam War.

"I feel so sad about what has been happening in our community," Vangyi said. "The Hmong used to have a good reputation. The problem of gang raping that has been rampaging across the nation has damaged the Hmong reputation as a whole."

Correspondent Greg Lefevre and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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