A United Airlines pilot was arrested and accused yesterday of running a brothel ring in a half dozen office or apartment buildings across Houston.
Fifty-one-year-old Bruce Wayne Willis is charged with aggravated promotion of prostitution and engaging in organized crime. Prosecutors said during his probable cause hearing that Willis charged women $400 a week to solicit sex through his operation using online advertisements, as the Houston Chronicle reported. About six to ten women were at each makeshift brothel, according to prosecutors.
Assistant Harris County District Attorney Lester Blizzard told the Chron that this was “the largest operation that I’ve ever worked on,” adding that 19 women (but no clients) were also arrested for prostitution. The Texas Department of Public Safety led the investigation with help from the Houston Police Department’s vice division, which recently bragged at a press conference about several other successful prostitution sting operations in recent months. Together with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, police have arrested more than 400 people for buying or selling sex between January 4 and February 26.
At least in Willis’s case, needless to say, he won’t be flying anymore. The airline told KHOU yesterday that it has fired Willis.
This article appears in Mar 24-30, 2016.
