Immigration violations and possible sex trafficking discovered in Nevada brothels

By Dan Whitcomb

(Reuters) – An investigation into three legal Nevada brothels owned by a reality TV star and state legislative candidate found immigration violations and indications of possible human trafficking , said the county sheriff.

An inspection this week of the Bunny Ranch, Kit Kat Ranch and Love Ranch, all owned by Dennis Hof, capped a four-month investigation by the Lyon County Sheriff's Office and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. customs, Sheriff Al McNeil said in a statement.

Hof, who appeared on HBO's reality show “Cathouse” about prostitutes in one of his brothels, won the Republican primary in June for a seat in the Nevada assembly and is considered the favorite in the November general election.

Hof denied any immigration violations or trafficking at the brothel and said the sheriff's department was responsible for screening potential employees.

“It’s the county’s responsibility, not us,” Hof told Reuters.

Nevada is the only U.S. state where prostitution is legal, although it is limited to brothels in eight counties.

“The discovery of violations of U.S. immigration law in our legal brothel system is extremely alarming,” McNeil said in a statement posted Thursday on Facebook.

“The ability to coerce, exploit and smuggle non-U.S. citizens into Lyon County by foreign criminal enterprises is going to be difficult to detect and deter due to our limited capabilities and resources for native-born applicants. “abroad, which has led us to develop better working partnerships with federal agencies to combat human trafficking,” he said.

Lyon County sheriff's deputies and U.S. Customs and Immigration officials conducted an inspection this week of the employment cards required for prostitutes in Nevada brothels, McNeil said.

A four-month internal investigation found that prostitutes' registration procedures were riddled with violations spanning several decades, the sheriff's office statement said.

“These practices include violations of U.S. immigration law, indicators of overseas human trafficking, fraudulent misrepresentations, issuance of employment cards before conducting criminal background checks, and inability to validate out-of-state and out-of-state and other foreign domestic documents to determine identity,” the release said.

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; editing by Bill Tarrant, Leslie Adler and Alexander Smith)