Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (TV Series)

Counselor, It's Chinatown (2019)

Nelson Lee: Sergeant Joe Chin

Photos 

Quotes 

• Odafin Tutuola : Condoms, lube. You know how many massage parlors I've raided? What's the point?

  Sergeant Joe Chin : We're looking for the beast with nine eyes.

  Odafin Tutuola : Come on, man, you already know the girls won't talk, the johns won't talk.

  Sergeant Joe Chin : Charlie talked.

  [spotting something] 

  Sergeant Joe Chin : What's that?

  Odafin Tutuola : Smoke detector.

  Sergeant Joe Chin : One in each room. These people seem interested in worker safety to you?

• Charlie : Lily would never jump. You push her.

  Odafin Tutuola : No, not us, Charlie.

  Sergeant Joe Chin : Lily's mom.

  Odafin Tutuola : Who did this? Mamasan?

  Charlie : I don't know.

  Odafin Tutuola : Yes, you do. Lily was gonna testify against the guy who roughed her up, who raped Mei Mei. It all happened on your watch, Charlie. Now, this guy, he shows up Sunday morning for his hangover.

  Charlie : He'd never rape Lily. The other girls? I couldn't stop that.

  Sergeant Joe Chin : Why? Because he was

  [speaking Chinese] 

  Sergeant Joe Chin : ? You can stop it now, Charlie. We know his friend's connected to the building. Who is he?

  Charlie : I don't know his name.

  Odafin Tutuola : They kill your girl and you're still protectin' 'em?

  Charlie : No, no name. Old school. I text his pager, meet him once a week, give him cash.

  Odafin Tutuola : Okay, so we get you your phone and you text him.

  Charlie : Okay. Doesn't matter. Lily, did she get a funeral?

• Lily Song : You get undressed.

  Sergeant Joe Chin : Lily, right?

  Lily Song : Mm-hmm.

  Sergeant Joe Chin : Now, my, uh, buddies say that you're good with full service?

  Lily Song : Yeah. You want executive release, number one, honeymoon?

  Olivia Benson : [watching the surveillance feed]  That's it.

  [into her radio] 

  Olivia Benson : All units, game on.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Here we go.

• Olivia Benson : So, we arrested four johns. They all claim they were getting a "massage."

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Yeah. Tough to prove otherwise. Who else?

  Sergeant Joe Chin : Charlie Hu. Bodyguard/muscle. Carrying an unregistered .45.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Hey, we can work with that.

  Olivia Benson : Other guy's over here.

  Odafin Tutuola : The mamasan, Evelyn Lee, she's hanging tough.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Well, no surprise there. What about these women?

  Olivia Benson : We're waiting on a translator for the ones who don't speak English, and, uh, Kat and Rollins are with two who speak some English. Kat says she's not fluent, but she does have some Cantonese, Mandarin, and Hokkien.

  Odafin Tutuola : Of course she does.

• Sergeant Joe Chin : Dates, names, amounts. Villages in China.

  Amanda Rollins : [into her radio]  Captain, we just broke into the Changs' iron mountain.

  Olivia Benson : [in the car, as Rollins texts photos]  We'll need more forensic accountants. Look at this. Okay, what about an arrest warrant for the Changs?

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : I'll call my new best friend, Hadid.

• Olivia Benson : Hey, guys, listen up. So, welcome to Operation Dragon Slay. This is Sergeant Joe Chin from the Human Trafficking Task Force.

  Sergeant Joe Chin : Thank you, Captain. Our focus: massage parlors that are fronts for sex slavery and debt servitude, undocumented women being forced to pay off their family's debt to smugglers.

  Olivia Benson : So, SVU has been tasked with investigating the Sweet Joy Relax Spa down on Eldridge.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : How long have we had them under watch?

  Odafin Tutuola : This one, a week. The girls are let out one hour a day, always escorted by Charlie Hu. He's illegal with ties to Chinatown gangs.

  Amanda Rollins : We estimate off-menu extras bring the spa around 50k in cash a week.

  Katriona Tamin : The women keep the bare minimum for food. The rest they turn over to the spa's mamasan, Evelyn Lee. Korean-Chinese.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : So she's the manager? Do we know who they lease the space from?

  Amanda Rollins : Not yet. The buildings and spas are hidden behind a web of offshore LLCs.

  Sergeant Joe Chin : UCs will pose as clients. The goal is we arrest the johns, management. We flip 'em, we follow the money, we get the owners.

  Olivia Benson : Okay, but the girls we do not arrest, right? If they talk, great, but if not, we still offer them immigration, legal, and medical assistance. Take them to social services.

• Olivia Benson : Surveillance cameras in the smoke alarms.

  Sergeant Joe Chin : All nine rooms. Mamasan's nine eyes.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Not security for the girls?

  Odafin Tutuola : No, to keep an eye on the cash.

  Amanda Rollins : TARU went through the servers. It turns out the cameras were routed to Mamasan's nail salon across the street. I went through some of it. It's... it's pretty ugly. Each woman services over a dozen men a day. Um, I found this in there.

  Olivia Benson : [watching a feed]  Okay, turn that off. That's rape.

  Sergeant Joe Chin : Mm-hmm.

  Olivia Benson : Who is she?

  Amanda Rollins : This is Mei Mei. I-I spoke with her. She didn't say one word about this.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Of course she didn't. She's scared of Mamasan.

  Olivia Benson : So, bring Mei Mei in and let her know that if she helps us, we will take Mamasan down.

• Sergeant Joe Chin : Snakeheads smuggle girls from China, charge the family with insurmountable debt.

  Amanda Rollins : Which the girls are forced to pay off doing sex work at massage parlors.

  Vanessa Hadid : Yes, we all know how this works, and we're no longer supposed to arrest the girls, so the cycle never ends.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Which is why we're working our way to the top. Avi Olin here, he holds leases on a dozen slum buildings housing massage parlors.

  Vanessa Hadid : You dug him out behind his LLCs? He got sloppy?

  Amanda Rollins : No, his son did. We got him on a rape charge.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Yeah, to keep his son out of prison, Avi has given us Arthur and Christine Chang.

  Vanessa Hadid : You do know the Changs are one of Park Avenue's most prominent power couples? Hospital and museum boards, Asian charities.

  Sergeant Joe Chin : The classic Chinese-American success story, except they're also sex traffickers.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Avi Olin has agreed to testify that the Changs are behind every shadow spa company that he leased to.

  Vanessa Hadid : And the Changs will argue Mr. Olin cut a deal to save his son. Even if they do own the parlors, how can we prove they know what goes on inside?

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Ms. Hadid, what do you mean?

  Vanessa Hadid : Hard evidence that they're behind the trafficking, or this is a no-go.