A local woman has been indicted in connection with running a human trafficking and prostitution operation in Greater Boston.
Crystal Emerson, 29, was indicted Thursday by a Suffolk County grand jury on one count of conspiracy to traffic persons for sexual servitude.
According to Attorney General Martha Coakley, Emerson helped 49-year-old Dorchester resident Michael Leoney run a ring that operated in hotels and private residences in the Boston area.
The grand jury indicted Leoney Thursday on charges of trafficking of persons for sexual servitude, conspiracy to traffic persons for sexual servitude and deriving support from prostitution.
Coakley’s office began a joint investigation of the operation with the Boston Police Department’s Human Trafficking Unit last year.
Leoney allegedly ran the operation, coordinated the recruitment of women in prostitution and managed the money.
He allegedly advertised sexual services on websites known to advertise prostitution and arranged for these encounters either at the homes of “johns” or at hotels in the Boston area.
Investigators allege Leoney typically received the full profits from the sexual encounters.
Emerson allegedly assisted in the daily operations, including training the women recruited by Leoney, purchasing advertisements to promote sexual services and setting up hotel reservations for sexual encounters.
Last December, police arrested Leoney on related charges after executing search warrants on his residence and vehicles. Emerson was not charged at the time.
Local police arrested her in January in connection with an alleged house burglary. At the time, Emerson gave police an address at 42 Heather Drive in Manomet.
Local police accused Emerson and another man, a 28-year-old local resident, of breaking into a house on Fortune Drive in Cedarville. They allegedly had goods stolen from the house, including jewelry and computers, in their vehicle when police stopped them Jan. 15.
Leoney and Emerson will be arraigned in Suffolk Superior Court on the trafficking charges at a later date.