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A local investigation uncovered an international human trafficking ring that has victimized about 16 Chinese women, McLennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara said.

The office’s Criminal Investigation Division opened a human trafficking investigation in the Waco area last fall. Detectives uncovered an operation that was bringing women in from China and sending them throughout the nation for the purpose of prostitution, McNamara said.

“Detective Joseph Scaramucci has been investigating human trafficking in Waco and Central Texas and it has led to an international trafficking ring that goes from Waco, Houston and to New York with women from China,” McNamara said. “I am so proud of our CID unit and all the hard work that they have put in to fight human trafficking.”

Search warrants served on residences in Houston and Austin led detectives to New York in search of their primary suspect, McNamara said.

In late September, Scaramucci reported he reached out to an online ad promoting an “Asian female escort” on Backpage.com, according to an arrest affidavit. He made contact with a woman in a Waco hotel and found that she had been staying in the room for a lengthy period of time after she flew from Hong Kong to San Francisco, then to Houston.