Several Omaha hotels and salons targeted in federal trafficking investigation

Kentakumar Chaudhari, 36, Rashmi Ajit Samani, 42, Amit Prahladbhai Chaudhari, 32, Amit Babubhai Chaudhari, 33, and Maheshkumar Chaudhari, 38, were arrested and charged after federal, state, and local law enforcement officers executed search warrants on suspicion of labor and sex trafficking crimes at four hotels. The five people are also accused of money laundering, committing fraud and misusing visas, among other crimes.

Four of the five live in Omaha. Maheshkumar Chaudhari lives in Norfolk, Nebraska.

The United States Attorney’s Office said in a press release that the five owned, operated and managed the following hotels:

• The AmericInn, 2920 S. 13th Court in Omaha.
• The Inn (formerly Super 8), 9305 S. 145th St. in Omaha.
• New Victorian Inn and Suites, 10728 L St. in Omaha.
• Rodeway Inn, 1110 Fort Crook Road South in Bellevue.

Four other people were also arrested on outstanding local warrants, Eugene Kowel, special agent in charge at the FBI Omaha Field Office, said in a press conference Tuesday afternoon.

Law enforcement searched the hotels, two residences, and several Brow & Lash salons, including one in Westroads Mall, as part of the search warrant.

The Attorney’s Office said law enforcement officers rescued 10 children and 17 adults as part of the investigation. Children under 12 years old, the office said, allegedly worked at the hotels for long hours with little to no pay. The Attorney’s Office said one person who worked with federal law enforcement “entered a hotel room where immigrant victims were sleeping on the floor of the room with cockroaches crawling on the victims as they slept.”

Kowel said some victims were coerced into having sex in exchange for rent. He also said evidence showed drug trafficking and drug usage were “rampant” at the hotels. Narcan, a drug overdose reversal agent, was stored at a hotel front desk. Witnesses said drug dealing was open in the parking lots and drug needles littered a stairwell inside a hotel.

Kowel said the victims came from “a variety of locations.” Many were born outside the United States, he said.

In one alleged incident, a hotel owner hired a hotel employee to stage a fake robbery at a Brow & Lash salon at 700 S. 72nd St., in an effort to obtain a new visa.

In addition to the arrests, Kowel said law enforcement officers seized more than $500,000 in cash and about $65,000 in jewelry.

“That’s just a partial count. These searches are still ongoing,” he said.

Kowel said law enforcement has filed a court motion to prevent the hotels from being sold or transferred to different owners while the investigation is ongoing. He added the U.S. Marshals Service is “actively recovering” assets that were allegedly illegally acquired.

Kowel said law enforcement officers made a determined effort to go up the food chain to arrest “the worst of the worst.”

“We wanted to ensure we are holding accountable the leaders of the organization — not just going after the low-level criminal elements,” he said.

‘We have nowhere to go’

Some hotel residents said law enforcement agents told them to stay inside while the search warrants were being executed.

Sierra Gast, a longtime resident of the Bellevue hotel, said she woke at 5:15 a.m. to police lights and a law enforcement agent walking with a rifle outside her room.

Gast said the questions from investigators focused on sex trafficking, rent costs and the conditions of the hotel.

Gast said residents of the hotel now have seven days to find new homes.

“We have nowhere to go,” Gast said. “So it’s just very unfortunate. There’s a lot of residents here. Everybody’s gonna go to the curb.”

Around 6:30 a.m. Tuesday, Chris Rorebeck, who was staying at the AmericInn, said he heard noise outside his room and was asked by law enforcement agents to stay inside until he could be questioned.

Rorebeck, who worked an overnight maintenance job at the hotel, listed off the questions agents asked him and others at the hotel:

“Is there any known sex trafficking going on? Has anybody paid you any money to use your room for anything? You know of any drug activity?” Roreback said.

Evelin Lopez, another occupant of the hotel, wasn’t at the hotel when the operation started but her husband was. He called her on the phone while he was questioned by officers. The three-hour phone call ended with him being arrested and choosing to self-deport back to Guatemala.

Tuesday’s operation comes four months after six people were charged in connection to sex trafficking at the AmericInn.

As for the other residents, Roreback said he was told to get everyone out by the end of the night and that the building would be seized within two weeks.

Around 3:30 p.m. the building was quiet, as law enforcement left and occupants started packing up their things to leave the hotel.

Kowel said the searches and arrests happened “without incident.”

“There were no complaints of injury or harm. Everyone was taken safely into custody,” he said.

Four years in the making

By the time more than 300 law enforcement officers from 11 agencies executed the search warrants on Tuesday, the investigation was already four years in the making. Kowel said the investigation began after members of the public made complaints to law enforcement. The Omaha Police Department, Nebraska State Patrol and Sarpy County Sheriff’s Office were some of the agencies that assisted the FBI and Homeland Security in the investigation.

“It takes a lot of work to put these kinds of cases together,” Kowel said.

Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer said more than 100 Omaha police officers from the department have been involved in the “exhaustive” investigation since January.

“Omaha became safer. Our vulnerable population became safer today,” he said.

Kowel encouraged people to continue to call in tips — saying tips are “the most important tool in law enforcement.”

World-Herald staff writer Julie Anderson and photojournalist Chris Machian contributed to this report.