Demolition begins at notorious Han Gil hotel, former hub of trafficking, violent crime - The Dallas Morning News

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The Han Gil Hotel Town, which for years was a hotspot of drugs and death in northwest Dallas, is being demolished this week.

In December, U.S. District Judge Karen Scholer called it a “hotel of horrors” when sentencing its former owner, Amos Mun, to 20 years in federal prison for maintaining a drug-involved premises. At least three people died of overdoses there, their bodies dumped elsewhere.

Mun forfeited the hotel to the federal government as part of his plea deal. The government sold it to a developer under the condition that the building be razed.

The Han Gil Hotel Town building will be torn down in phases because of asbestos issues.(DEA-Dallas Division )

Demolition began Tuesday, as crews began ripping through the rear portions of the building.

“For far too long, the Han Gil played host to a parade of despicable criminals engaged in drug dealing, murder and human trafficking,” U.S. Attorney Erin Nealy Cox said in a prepared statement issued Wednesday. “With the destruction of the building, we have closed a chapter of the Han Gil horror story.”

Still, Nealy Cox said, the investigation into the network of drug dealing and human trafficking that moved through the hotel will continue.

The hotel was across from an elementary school, and was a “safe haven” for dealers peddling heroin, crack cocaine and methamphetamine. Many users would inject the drugs at the hotel, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. Beatings, sexual abuse and even torture occurred there.

One of the hotel’s top drug dealers, Kendrick “Kiki” Washington, admitted to filming another dealer, Eric “Stuff” Freeman, using a blowtorch on a young black man. Washington and Freemen were both sentenced to 30 years in prison for drug and gun charges after the hotel was closed.

The hotel was the site of beatings, rapes and torture. “With the destruction of the building, we have closed a chapter of the Han Gil horror story," U.S. Attorney Erin Nealy Cox said.(Brian Elledge / Staff Photographer)

“Drug trafficking and the violent acts that accompany it destroy lives and leave families shattered,” said Eduardo A. Chávez, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Agency’s Dallas field division, said in a prepared statement. “Now, the Han Gil, through its shattered glass and destroyed walls, will no longer be a visible symbol of the abhorrent crimes committed within its walls.”

The hotel is being torn down in phases as crews complete asbestos abatement, Nealy Cox said.

The new property owner plans to build a retail and apartment complex on the property.

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