OMAHA — A multi-year investigation centered on multiple motels, “brow and lash” salons and alleged human trafficking in and around Nebraska’s largest city has led to charges against five people in the hotel business.

The five are accused of crimes ranging from alleged sex and labor trafficking, fraudulent use of visas, money laundering and concealing undocumented immigrants, law enforcement officials announced Tuesday.

Also seized as part of the search warrants was $565,000 in cash and jewelry. A representative of U.S. Homeland Security said workers in the country without proper documentation also were detained, though he declined to disclose how many.

Eugene Kowel, special agent in charge of the Omaha FBI, said child victims as young as 12 years old were involved in a case he described as “absolutely horrific.” A statement said officers “rescued” 10 minors and 17 adults from the alleged labor trafficking conspiracy.

“Human trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery,” Kowel said. “This investigation revealed victims right here in the heartland forced into sexual activity, living and working in dangerous and filthy conditions and extorted to work in grueling jobs with little to no pay.”

Kowel said investigators became aware of activity about four years ago, assisted by calls and concerns from the public.

He said the case involved “sex for rent,” drugs and more. On one occasion, he said, a source working with the federal government entered a hotel room where immigrants slept on the floor with cockroaches crawling on them.

Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer said more than 100 Omaha officers worked the case at various points, mostly since earlier this year, when an alleged juvenile sex trafficking case was revealed at one of the hotels that was also part of Tuesday’s crackdown. That property, the AmericInn near Interstate-80 and 13th Street, is adjacent to Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo.

Other motel properties upon which agents converged Tuesday: New Victorian Inn & Suites near 108th and L Streets; Rodeway Inn at 1110 Fort Crook Road South in Bellevue; The Inn (formerly Super 8) at 9305 S. 145th St.

Ten other businesses associated with the accused also were searched under a warrant, the officials said, including “brow and lash” salons in the Westroads Mall and other Omaha metro locations.

The five people accused of alleged crimes, according to the U.S. Attorney for Nebraska, Lesley Woods: Kentakumar Chaudhari, 36, of Elkhorn; Rashmi Ajit Samani, 42, of Elkhorn; Amit Prahladbhai Chaudhari, 32, of Omaha; Amit Babubhai Chaudhari, 33, of Omaha; and Maheshkumar Chaudhari, 38, of Norfolk.

According to a U.S. Attorney’s Office statement, sex trafficking was encouraged at the hotels — “protected from law enforcement detection, and sex trafficking victims at the hotels were subjected not only to the traditional perpetrators of a sex trafficking scheme but also to hotel management and employees victimizing them as well.”

The statement said, “Drug traffickers allegedly received protection from law enforcement in the same manner in which human traffickers were also shielded by the hotel owners and managers.”

Kowel said at least one of the accused is charged with conspiracy to defraud the government through a scheme designed to obtain a U visa, which are for victims that help law enforcement prosecute crimes.

In that situation, he said, a hotel owner is accused of staging a fictitious robbery at a salon in 2022, the goal allegedly being to secure a U visa for one of the other defendants by representing her as a victim.

The government officials further alleged that one of the five people accused had “engaged in conversations” about the cost to bring someone from India to America. The statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office said “a number of hotel employees” crossed the Arizona border several years ago and reported to Customs and Border Patrol that they would be residing at one or more of that defendant’s hotels, “thereby indicating those arrangements were made prior to entering the country illegally.”

The government alleged also that unauthorized immigrants were transported between Nebraska and the state of Washington to fraudulently obtain Washington driver’s licenses for about $1,000 per document.

The federal government is taking steps to prevent the sale or transfer of the hotels during the ongoing investigation. The officials said 11 agencies and about 300 law enforcement officers were involved in the FBI-led investigation.

Among the agencies: the Nebraska State Patrol, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the local U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office and Sarpy County Sheriff’s Office.

This story was published by Nebraska Examiner, an editorially independent newsroom providing a hard-hitting, daily flow of news. Read the original article: https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/08/12/omaha-area-motels-salons-human-t...