INDIANAPOLIS (WTHR) - A chain of Indiana restaurants is at the center of a huge human trafficking investigation by federal, state and local task force officers. The Teppanyaki Grill and Buffet on both East Washington Street and West 38th Street in Indianapolis got hit with search warrants Thursday.
Eyewitness News spoke extensively to the East Washington Street manager Friday morning who denied any wrongdoing and defended the establishment.
"No comment," said Cheng Li, who manages the east side location.
But multiple sources tell Eyewitness News that investigators found five to six young undocumented immigrants working at each restaurant. Most of the immigrants are teenage girls. They are reportedly forced to work for no pay but are allowed to keep the tips from customers at the restaurants.
"I know human trafficking is a hard case to crack," said Leta Taylor, a longtime customer. "But I can not support the restaurant with this lurking overhead right now. If it turns out that it’s not true then we will be back."
In one case, investigators say they located a young Asian girl who had only been in the United States for three days, forced to work without pay and, like the others, allegedly suffered physical and mental abuse.
Investigators say eventually, after working several weeks and sometimes months without being paid, the immigrants would then be transported to New York to endure the same abuse and illegal labor practices.
FBI agents from New York arrived in Indianapolis this week as part of the ongoing investigation, according to sources.
During the raids at seven different locations around the state investigators confiscated thousands of dollars in cash, a tremendous amount of paperwork and documents from the restaurants and in most cases they also took the Digital Video Recorders which may help document alleged abuse.
The East Washington Street location reopened Friday but the West 38th Street restaurant remained closed as of late Friday afternoon.
So far no arrests have been made in this case. Sources say it will be several weeks before that happens due to the large amount of documents investigators will have to sort through.
Customers showed up at a west side location all afternoon, but it did not re-open for business Friday.
"Good staff. We don't have any problems at all with the restaurant except that now with this lurking overhead, I just can't support it," said Leta Taylor, customer. "Once it's cleared up we will be back. So if we find out that they are not involved, then we will be back. If we find out that they are involved and we did eat here after finding out that they might be, I just don't want to have to deal with that."
Investigators, including the FBI, are now working to identify the victims.
There have been no arrests so far, but the investigation is far from over.