A tip from a pest control technician who treated a North Texas residence for bed bugs in mid March led to the discovery of a human trafficking ring in Collin County , court documents state.
The employee showed up at a house in the 1000 block of Ginsburg Lane in Princeton, according to probable cause affidavits supporting the arrest of 31-year-old Dwaraka Gunda and 24-year-old Chandan Dasireddy. He was met by two men outside the residence who gave him permission to enter. The door was locked, and two young women who looked like they might be teenagers answered his knock.
When the women showed the technician where they thought the bed bugs were, he noticed “a large amount of suitcases” in the open areas of the residence and three to five women sleeping on the floor in each room where the door was open. Most of the women were sleeping on bed rolls, the affidavits state. The only furniture in the house consisted of one air mattress and some folding tables.
The employee told police he thought there were around 15-20 young women at the residence. Investigators recognized that the lack of furniture and the large number of women living out of suitcases and sleeping on the floor “are signs of human trafficking,” according to the affidavits.
Princeton police executed a search warrant at the house and found 15 women from 23 to 26 years of age. The women told investigators they initially came to the Ginsburg Lane house for an “internship” to learn Java scripting with a company owned by Gunda and her husband, 31-year-old Santhosh Katkoori. They identified Dasireddy as the one who picked them up from the airport and said he was working with Gunda and Katkoori.
“Once the females obtained employment, their jobs would pay Katkoori and (Gunda’s) company directly,” the affidavits state. “In return, they would take approximately 20% of their salary then pay the females the remainder.”
Investigators attempted to interview Katkoori at the Ginsburg house. He initially agreed to talk, and said his wife owns the company that employed the women. A short time later he said he didn’t want to talk anymore, according to the court documents.
Officers also tried to interview Dasireddy at some point in the investigation, but he declined to speak without an attorney, according to his arrest warrant affidavit.
Officials seized cell phones, multiple laptops, printers and fraudulent documents while executing the warrant at Katkoori’s house on Ginsburg Lane, Princeton police said in a news release. Investigators determined several other locations in Princeton, Melissa and McKinney were employing men and women for forced labor. Additional cell phones, laptops and documents were seized from those locations.
Katkoori, Gunda, Dasireddy and 37-year-old Anil Male have all been charged with trafficking of persons, which is a second-degree felony.
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