A Queens woman was arrested after being charged with luring women to Long Island by tricking them into believing they would be working as nail salon attendants.

Instead, when they arrived for work, she allegedly forced them into prostitution.

Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota held a press conference today announce the arrests of Jin Hua Cui (pronounced Choy) 44, as well as Sangyel Kuen (pronounced Koon) 53, both of Queens.

"Young women answering Korean newspaper ads for nail salon attendants were coerced by Ms. Cui—by threats of violence and intimidation—into prostitution," DA Spota said.

Cui would advertise for women to work in her nail salons and then would force them into prostitution by threatening to have Chinese gangs kill them if they didn't cooperate. She also allegedly threatened to expose them as prostitutes in the community in Flushing if they didn't perform sex acts with customers. She also told them they would be thrown out on the streets of Long Island if they did not participate.

Kuen has pled guilty to a class B felony. He said he was a participant as he was the driver for Cui. He drove the women to the nail salons/massage parlors from Flushing. He would pick them up on Parsons Boulevard in Queens and take them to Hicksville or Huntington Station, depending on which location they worked out of.

The women didn't speak English, couldn't read street signs, didn't know where they were, had no money and no way to get home.

Cui advertised for customers on Craig's List. She admitted she got into the business to make lots of money, said Spota, and obviously, judging by the $20,000 seized in the raid on Cui's Flushing home, it was paying off.

 Spota said that the customers paid 60 or 80 dollars, sometimes more, for sex.

"The house took that money and the women were left with whatever cash tip they were paid by the customer," he said.

Spota said that in 2007 the Suffolk County Legislature introduced laws making sex trafficking a state crime. He added that the law therefore is fairly new and not often used. Cui, he said, could receive up to 25 years in prison, but he said that it is difficult to prosecute sex trafficking, because the victims are often unwilling to participate because of threats to them and their families.

Investigator Chris Timpone and Police Officer Lance McQuade from the Second Precinct had spent four months investigating this sex ring, since March 2010, before the arrests, said Spota.

"There is evil lurking on Long Island sometimes for those searching for the American dream," Spota said. "But we in Suffolk County are not going to tolerate that and we are going to prosecute them."

Prosecutor Jessica Spencer, who Spota called "seasoned," said that seven to eight victims have been identified so far, all women in their 30s and 40s. She said that they are still going through all the materials that were seized. She said that the women were "frightened, scared and vulnerable."

Spencer didn't know if Cui would have been able to follow up with her threats to harm the victims and that there was no evidence of any drugs used. Cui had been in operation several years, Spencer said, and Kuen admitted to driving her for two years.

Cui was arrested at least once before, in 2007, for prostititon.