Two Columbus women, ages 77 and 69, are facing separate felony human-trafficking charges after being booked into the Muscogee County Jail within hours of each other. Suji Kim, 77, and Byung Kim, 69, were arrested on human-trafficking and prostitution charges, according to Muscogee County eCourt portal records.
Court and jail records reviewed by cnaw2news.com show the Columbus Police Department listed as the arresting agency in both cases. Byung Kim was booked into the Muscogee County Jail at 8:05 p.m. on October 19, with Suji Kim following just over four hours later, at 12:22 a.m. on October 20.
What Each Woman Is Accused Of
Suji Kim faces a felony charge of trafficking a person for labor servitude, along with a misdemeanor charge of keeping a place of prostitution, per the same records. Byung Kim's charges differ slightly: she is accused of a felony count of trafficking a person for sexual servitude, in addition to a misdemeanor charge of keeping a place of prostitution.
The eCourt portal records reviewed for the report offered no additional details about what led investigators to the two women or what circumstances preceded the arrests. Both sets of charges remain allegations at this stage, and Suji Kim and Byung Kim are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court.
Part of a Broader Pattern in the Region
The arrests land amid a string of trafficking-related cases that have surfaced around Columbus and the wider Georgia region in recent years, though nothing in the available records ties this case to those earlier investigations. A Georgia Bureau of Investigation operation in Columbus in April 2025, coordinated with the Georgia Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and the Muscogee County Sheriff's Office, led to 19 arrests after investigators established 35 cases that met the threshold for arrest, according to WRBL. That sweep, dubbed Operation Lights Out, ran from April 24 through April 28, 2025.
Similar operations have unfolded elsewhere in the state. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation reported that an operation in Houston County in March led to 24 arrests targeting sex traffickers and commercial sex buyers. A separate GBI operation in Macon in November 2024, called Operation Macon Plays, resulted in 13 arrests following a multi-agency online sex-trafficking investigation.
A Separate Columbus Case Still Working Through Court
Columbus has also seen trafficking cases involving minors move through its court system. In a case unconnected to this week's arrests, Columbus police responded to the Mainstay Suites off Victory Drive on November 27, 2025, in an investigation involving Genesis Hunter, Ta'Roderick Edwards and a juvenile who authorities said had been reported missing from DeKalb County, according to a report from Yahoo News. A Columbus Police Department Special Victims Unit corporal said Hunter and Edwards allegedly helped the juvenile create internet pictures for planned sexual encounters with adult men, the outlet reported. Hunter pleaded not guilty to trafficking, pimping and prostitution charges, and that case has since been bound over to superior court.
No such details — including any alleged victims, locations or the circumstances that led investigators to Suji Kim and Byung Kim — appear in the records tied to this latest case. Court and jail filings have not included statements from Columbus police, prosecutors or defense attorneys, and no information on bond conditions, court dates or plea status has surfaced publicly as of this report.
