A 44-year-old Flushing man sought in connection with a sex trafficking and prostitution network, turned himself in to agents at FBI headquarters in Manhattan last week.

Chung-Hsueh Li was one of more than 20 defendants charged Nov. 17, 2010 with alleged involvement in a multi-state sex trafficking network that operated brothels in New York City, Texas, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, authorities said.

The FBI had been searching for Li and two other fugitives who vanished shortly after the charges were announced in November.

The agency released Li’s photo and a wanted poster to local newspapers and posted it on the newyork.fbi.gov Web site. 

The New York bureau of the FBI has been investigating the network’s activities in the city’s Korean communities and, as a result, uncovered brothels they were operating in other states, the spokesperson said. “These people were so organized that they paid specific taxi drivers to transport Korean prostitutes across the country to perform illicit sexual activities.”

FBI officials said that many of the prostitution-related businesses portrayed themselves as legal massage parlors or health spas.

Li and defendants arrested last November face sentences ranging from five to 45 years, including money laundering, conspiring to distribute cocaine and transporting individuals between state lines for illicit purposes.

A complete list of charges faced by Li was not available at press time.

–Liz Goff