Restaurant investigated for prostitution, smuggling

By Andria Simmons

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Federal search warrants have been executed at a Woodstock restaurant and the restaurant owner’s home as part of an investigation into allegations of prostitution, indentured servitude and alien harboring.

The owner of La Cabana restaurant at 9770 Main Street in Woodstock, Ga., has been involved with smuggling women from Central and South America into the United States and engaging them in prostitution to repay their smuggling debts, according to documents filed in federal magistrate court in Atlanta. The women -- some as young as 15 years old -- allegedly perform sex acts for money in a “sex room” at the restaurant and at the owner’s home on Jamie Way in Woodstock.

The federal search warrants say the business operates as a public restaurant during the day, but after 10 p.m. it transitions to a gentleman’s club.

The properties were searched Aug. 26, but no arrests have yet been made. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Atlanta said the investigation is continuing and declined to comment further.