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Judge orders Victory Inn padlocked for a year, all contents removed

Posted at 1:58 PM, Jan 27, 2017
and last updated 2017-01-27 18:10:52-05

A Wayne County judge has ordered the Victory Inn on the Dearborn/Detroit border be padlocked for the next 12 months and all contents removed.

Judge Robert Colombo said it was clear the people who owned the property and ran it turned their backs on the criminal activity that was happening there to make money.

During a hearing on Friday, Star Lodge, who owns the motel, was hoping the city would allow them to get a chance to clean up the building and even offered to join the Project Greenlight program.

According to the city, there was strong evidence of drugs, prostitution and human trafficking in about half of the 42 rooms.

This all started when officers conducted a raid on the hotel earlier this month.

A Homeland Security officer testified that when the warrant was served, they found an "uncountable" amount of needles, crack pipes and lottery tickets used to carry drugs. They also found 14 possible victims of human trafficking. Those women were found shaking, frigid and appeared high on drugs inside rooms.

"I've never seen anything like this in my life," the Homeland Security officer testified. 

Michael Randol is accused of running a prostitution and drug distribution ring out of Victory Inn. He was arrested in the raid on Jan. 12.

He was charged with a long list of crimes, including sex trafficking of minors or by force, fraud or coercion, conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud the United States and distribution of a controlled substance.