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What's next for the seized and shut down Royal Inn in Phoenix

 A three-story yellowish-tan building is seen here with yellow crime scene tape stretching across the bottom 1/4 of the image.
Kirsten Dorman/KJZZ
FBI agents seized and shut down the Royal Inn near Interstate 17 and Bethany Home Road on Sept. 24, 2024.

FBI agents seized and shut down the Royal Inn near Interstate 17 and Bethany Home Road earlier this week.

Authorities say the owners knowingly rented rooms to drug dealers and sex workers, despite numerous warnings from law enforcement.

“This is not a case in which human trafficking is charged, but commercial sex operations give rise to concerns that there is victimization,” said Gary Restaino, U.S. attorney for the District of Arizona. “And so it's the potential for victimization that leads the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office and the city of Phoenix to try to engage in a proactive solution.”

Restaino said that over the years-long federal investigation, authorities tracked a pattern that also included crimes like drug trafficking.

“We've named Sarang Hospitality and the Royal Inn as a corporate defendant in this case,” he said. “At some point down the road, and I expect this may take a while, we will have forfeiture proceedings to try to convert ownership and not just mere possession to the government.”

The Marshal’s Service has possession of the hotel, he added, with crime scene tape, a fence and coverings over the doors and windows.

“That'll prevent it from being used for illicit activities in the short term,” said Restaino. “Longer term, we're going to have what's called a forfeiture proceeding on that property.”

As for the hotel if they succeed: “That's a down the road step, once we finally get the court to order the forfeiture of the property to the United States. But we'll certainly be interested in community ideas along the way.”

Restaino expressed appreciation for the nearby community, which he said played a key role in the investigation by communicating with law enforcement often.

Kirsten Dorman is a field correspondent at KJZZ. Born and raised in New Jersey, Dorman fell in love with audio storytelling as a freshman at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in 2019.
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