A San Francisco man has been charged with pimping after reporting to police that his girlfriend was being sex trafficked out of a South San Francisco hotel – only to be arrested for allegedly providing her to the sex traffickers to support himself, prosecutors said.
Geng Cai, 37, was charged Friday with pimping and pandering between April and September, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office.
Cai was also charged with possession of controlled substances and possession of drug paraphernalia, prosecutors said.
“What my prosecutors felt here is that for Mr. Cai, who was exposing our victim to the human traffickers, the sex traffickers, and that’s what made him qualify for pimping and pandering,” said San Mateo County District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe. “He basically turned her over to the sex traffickers, who have been trafficking her on a true human trafficking level.”
At his arraignment Friday, Cai pleaded not guilty to all charges, prosecutors said.
Cai brought his girlfriend to the South San Francisco Police Department on Sept. 30 to report that she had been sex trafficked, prosecutors said.
Both Cai and his girlfriend reported to police that she had traveled from China and entered the United States illegally, where she had been promised she could earn money “giving massages,” prosecutors said.
After her arrival, Cai’s girlfriend met with the traffickers at Park Pointe Hotel in South San Francisco, where they confiscated her passport, gave her methamphetamine and forced her into sex work, prosecutors said.
“He was enabling her to work with the traffickers,” Wagstaffe said. “This is his girlfriend, supposedly. That’s not exactly what they call a good way to treat a good relationship.”
Wagstaffe also noted that Cai’s drug charges are for simple possession; he is not accused of supplying his girlfriend with methamphetamine.
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Wagstaffe added that the case remains “very intensely” under investigation as police look into the sex trafficking.
“You don’t see (sex trafficking) often here in our county,” Wagstaffe said, noting that there are more labor trafficking cases, which is unusual for an urban area. “Law enforcement needs to do the same thing with sex trafficking, which is, as I say, pull the covers back and let’s turn the light on it and try and stop it. We do have a lot of hotels at the airport.”
Cai is out of custody on supervised own recognizance. He will next appear in court Nov. 20 for a court review conference.