SnapGlow.TV: Modern Gems Galore! Police raided several rooms at the Ramada Philadelphia Northeast hotel Sunday night and arrested a West Philadelphia man in connection with what could be a forced-prostitution ring.
Capt. John Darby, of the police Special Victims Unit, said that John Lee, 49, of 57th Street near Master, has been charged with rape, assault and other charges in connection with two young women who had been with him at the Northeast Philadelphia hotel since Thursday.
Police found nine other women during the raid. Darby said that police questioned and released a 39-year old man.
Darby declined to say whether the two young women, whom they did not identify, were being forced into prostitution, but said that police had information "concerning the possibility of a prostitution-type operation going on inside the hotel."
When asked if the two women were being held captive, Darby said: "There was some indication that they were not free to leave."
Darby said that the nine other women found at the hotel were interviewed at the Special Victims Unit yesterday. Immigration authorities were notified because one of the women "had some background outside of the country," Darby said.
The incident began at about 7 p.m. Sunday, when four officers from the court system's warrant unit arrived at the Ramada, on Roosevelt Boulevard near Tomlinson Road, to arrest a young woman wanted for a probation violation on a drug charge.
Darby declined to say what information led them to the hotel, but said that when officers spoke with the woman, they got information that led police to search several rooms.
The 23-year-old woman wanted on the probation violation is one of the sexual-assault victims in the case, along with a 22 year-old Mount Laurel woman, Darby said.
He said that police found cocaine, heroin, marijuana and more than $1,800 cash in a room registered to Lee. He faces narcotics charges in addition to the sexual-assault charges, Darby said.
The Ramada was open for business yesterday afternoon.
A manager who declined to be identified said that hotel personnel were cooperating with police, and indicated that they had no idea that any suspicious activity was occurring in any of the rooms.
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