Feds raid four hotels and motels in Omaha area, arrest five in trafficking investigation

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) — Federal authorities searched 14 businesses and two homes in the Omaha area Tuesday, arresting five people in a human trafficking investigation.

Four hotels and motels were targeted in the raid: The AmericInn near Interstate 80 and 13th Street, The Inn (formerly Super 8) near I-80 and 144th Street, The New Victorian Inn & Suites off Highway 275 and the Rodeway Inn off Fort Crook Road in Bellevue.

Law enforcement said they rescued 10 minors and 17 adults from a labor trafficking ring.

The hotels made children as young as 12 years old work long hours for little to no pay, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Five owners and managers of the hotels were charged and arrested:

• Kentakumar Chaudhari, 36, of Elkhorn
• Rashmi Ajit Samani, 42, of Elkhorn
• Amit Prahladbhai Chaudhari, 32, of Omaha
• Amit Babubhai Chaudhari, 33, of Omaha
• Maheshkumar Chaudhari, 38, of Norfolk

The other properties searched on Tuesday, including several Brow and Lash salons, were all associated with the five defendants.

They also own hotels in central Nebraska, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

“They broke into his room and arrested him this morning,” Seira Gast said of the manager at the Rodeway. “He had the door barricaded with his chairs, and we’re not sure what happened there, but they broke through his window.”

Gast lived in the hotel for two months.

“They pulled everyone from their rooms, interviewing us, asking us about sex trafficking, asking us how much do we pay for rent here, that there might be a scam for the rent,” she said as she described the raid.

In addition to labor trafficking, authorities said at least one of the defendants was involved in sex trafficking both minor and adult victims.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said the hotels and motels not only allowed sex trafficking, but encouraged it and shielded the perpetrators from law enforcement.

“Several concerned citizens made calls to the human trafficking hotline in this case about child workers and sex trafficking occurring at some of these hotels,” said Eugene Kowel, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Omaha office.

The businesses were also a hotbed of drug activity, authorities said, with one source telling law enforcement that a stairwell in one of the hotels was littered with drug needles.

“According to evidence gathered in this investigation, drug trafficking and drug usage was rampant at this hotel,” Kowel said. “Drug traffickers allegedly received protection from law enforcement at these hotels.”

Authorities alleged that the defendants were also involved in money laundering and harboring people who are in the country illegally.

Agents seized more than $565,000 in the raids, and the U.S. Marshals Service is trying to recover more money it believes was illegally acquired.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement took an unknown number of people into custody at the hotels and motels, but authorities said those arrests were not related to the underlying investigation.