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Four arrested for prostitution at massage parlors

Four women have been charged with prostitution at several Treasure Valley massage parlors.

Boise Police say the four women were arrested at various different Boise massage parlors on Wednesday.

Charges against the suspects include prostitution, giving a massage without a city license, and violating city sanitary requirements by living or allowing employees to live and sleep inside the massage parlor.

“We have gotten a couple of complaints, anonymous complaints, from people who have been inside and they say suspected inside prostitution was happening,” said Sgt. Mike Harrington with the Boise Police.

Boise Police began getting citizen complaints several weeks ago alleging criminal activity including prostitution occurring inside several local massage parlors. Those tips led to a undercover investigation where Harrington says four undercover officers: “Go in there pay for a massage and then they eventually wait to get solicited for additional money for additional acts and those acts would include acts of prostitution.”

Read more at NBC26.com…

Arrests Made in Massage Parlor Sting Operation

A month long investigation has uncovered a prostitution ring at three message parlors in two counties in Northeast Wisconsin. Investigators tell NBC26 Four law enforcement agencies worked together to bust the operation.

Four people have been arrested in connection with the prostitution ring. The Beijing Massage in Ashwaubenon was closed with two people seen being taken away.

The doors are locked at the Eastern Massage Parlor in the Town of Buchanan and in Appleton, the Hong Kong Massage is closed for business. Pat Dewall with the Appleton Police Department says arrests were made. “We were investigating a report of prostitution that was occurring and the search warrant and subsequent arrests were the results of that investigation.”

According to investigators, the parlors look legitimate. But a quick check on the web suggests something much more. Erotic overtones and even reviews, with prices ranging from 70 to 100 dollars, for ‘VIP’ service.

Read more at Yahoo News…

PA. prostitution case tossed over gov’t-funded sex

An appeals court has ruled Pennsylvania State Police botched a prostitution investigation in which troopers gave an informant money to pay for sex four times at a massage parlor, along with a total of $180 for the man’s trouble.

The Superior Court opinion issued Thursday upheld a Lehigh County judge’s ruling that threw out prostitution charges on the grounds that the government had acted outrageously.

The appeals court ruling described how the man first approached state police to say he had been solicited for sex at the Shiatsu Spa. Troopers then supplied the unnamed man with government money and sent him back four times to engage in what the county judge called “a smorgasbord of sexual activity” during June and July 2006.

Lehigh County Judge Robert L. Steinberg said the man’s subsequent visits did not advance the police investigation. He was given $360 total to pay for the services, plus the extra $180 for his time.

“The outrageous nature is it went beyond what was necessary to prove the prostitution charge,” said the defendant’s Chon’s lawyer, Maureen Coggins.

Read more at Petaluma360.com…

6 nabbed during sex sting at massage parlors

Six people were arrested last week for prostitution-related offenses during a sting operation by the Petaluma Police Department.

After receiving complaints from neighboring businesses, residents and some disgruntled customers during the past year, undercover police officers went to five local massage parlors on Thursday and Friday to find out if they were soliciting customers for sex. The officers were solicited for sex at three of them: Pine Tree Massage, Moon Light Massage, and at a private residence, said Lt. Tim Lyons.

The officers arrested Abby Dancer, 50, of Petaluma at the Second Street residence for solicitation of prostitution. Two Los Angeles residents were nabbed at Moon Light Massage: Mi R. Downing, 43, for residing in a house of prostitution, and Son C. Cho, 52, for solicitation of prostitution.

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Search warrants were served at the time of the arrests to obtain additional evidence. This enabled officers to obtain detailed customer lists, phone numbers and payment information, Lyons said.

All of the suspects were arrested, booked and released on a citation to appear in court. The police department’s code-enforcement officer will be following up on local ordinance violations, and will be contacting property owners, Lyons said.

“The city is experiencing an increase in massage businesses conducting illegal activity,” he added. “Three years ago, the department was aware of just one business conducting prostitution, (but) today there are at least seven that the department is investigating.”

A busy time for the Mesa Police. Read more at AZCentral.com…

20 arrested in Mesa massage parlor crackdown

Mesa’s crackdown on massage parlors has resulted in 20 arrests for prostitution.

Since September, a task force of six police detectives has made 127 inspections and discovered 43 establishments violated state or local laws.

The violations include massage parlors operating with unlicensed therapists, and failing to notify the city of a change of business name.

Mesa police Lt. Lee White said the recently completed inspections included 78 citations against 63 people, mostly the managers and operators of the massage parlors who are not following city or state laws.

The arrests come as Mesa drafts a stricter policy on massage parlors operating in the city.

Mesa police say tighter regulations of massage parlors will make it easier for police to figure out which businesses offer legitimate therapeutic massage.

Read more at WFSB.com…

12 Charged Following Prostitution Sting
Police: Women Operated Out Of ‘Saunas’

A dozen women were charged with prostitution over the weekend after New Haven police conducted a sting operation.

Police said the arrests came after the raided two saunas: The Orange Sauna and The Star Sauna, both on Whalley Avenue.

“I did have a feeling about a month ago that something else was going on besides the normal massage,” resident Ella Blackwell said.

Blackwell said she caught on after a group of men recently used the ATM machine in her Laundromat.

“There were four guys who came in, and they were hitting the ATM machine really hard and they were happy,” she said.

New Haven’s Tactical Narcotic Unit had been investigating the saunas for three months prior to making the arrests. In addition to the arrests, police said, $30,000 in cash was seized.

Read the whole article at The Dallas Morning News…

Dallas police step up anti-prostitution efforts
by STEVE THOMPSON

This month, the Dallas city attorney’s office obtained an emergency order to shut down a northwest Dallas massage parlor accused of housing a prostitution ring involving underage girls.

The Golden Flower spa was the fifth massage parlor shut down this year, according to Dallas police. And while the others did not employ juveniles, police say prostitution in such businesses is a problem that has grown within the past year.

“Where we started out with one or two locations here and there, they started blossoming,” says vice squad Lt. Christina Smith. “We have a couple of areas in northwest Dallas where there are just multiple massage parlors within a couple of blocks of each other.”

Police say they have stepped up enforcement. This past week, Smith agreed to sit down for some questions about the effort.

Why is this a problem for Dallas?

We do get complaints from citizens, as well as surrounding businesses, that they don’t want this illegal activity in their neighborhoods. Prostitution is illegal, and we have women that are being prostituted. So this is a problem not just for the surrounding neighborhoods, but actually for the people that work in these locations. And because it is a criminal enterprise, there’s a possibility that there are other crimes that could take place that could jeopardize the safety of the people that are there.

When you suspect that there is prostitution in one of these businesses, what do you do to confirm that?

Without going into a lot of detail about our undercover operations, we do send undercover officers in. We talk to these women. They agree to a sex act for a fee, and the agreement is all that is needed to legally make a prostitution case.

Continue reading ‘Dallas police focus on massage parlors’ »

Read the whole story at The Austin-American Statesman…

Authorities investigating prostitution ring they say used Asian immigrants
More thank $550K in cash deposits believed linked to business
By Steven Kreytak

An Austin woman and others are accused of running a prostitution ring that advertised in the Austin Chronicle and on Craigslist and employed a rotating corps of prostitutes, according to a federal search warrant affidavit filed this week.

The affidavit said authorities — concerned that the women were trafficked into the country to be prostitutes— have been watching the ads closely, along with a series of apartments, hotel rooms and storefronts around Austin that served as brothels.

A woman was arrested and charged with aggravated promotion of prostitution in state court this month; authorities said she and another woman offered undercover officers sex for money. They were working out of a storefront in a Research Boulevard shopping center, the affidavit said.

Since 2003, the woman has deposited more than $500,000 in cash into her bank accounts, and authorities think that she did not pay appropriate taxes, the affidavit said.

She has not been charged in federal court, but the search warrant affidavit accuses her and others of conspiring since 2004 to run brothels and of money laundering. They are also accused of conspiring to harbor or transport illegal immigrants, or cause them to be transported, into the United States for prostitution. The affidavit said more than once that the woman was driving with Asian women who were later found to be in the country illegally.

A court pleading looks inside the office of a bordello.  Read the whole story at Cincinnati.com…

Affidavit sheds light on brothel

A criminal complaint unsealed Friday in U.S. District Court chronicles the federal government’s year-long struggle to close a reputed brothel in Florence.

A raid 12 months ago of the bordello appeared to be a success. Federal authorities didn’t nab the johns or prostitutes but the ringleaders were prosecuted.

The madams were sentenced to multiple months in jail and remained in prison Friday. The accused ringleader of a network of brothels was arrested and even began testifying against brothel owners.

Yet, despite the federal government’s apparent breakup of the ring, women continued to take money in exchange for sex at the location in Florence, according to the unsealed court documents.

The documents were made public during the first court appearance of one of the madams. The 51-year-old woman is charged with using interstate commerce to promote prostitution.

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The affidavit, attached to the criminal complaint for the madam, makes claims similar to what were made one year ago against the former owners of the business: The massage parlor listed at the address was a front for a brothel.

Customers would pay an upfront flat fee of $60 for a half-hour massage and $80 for a one-hour massage. When they were brought into a back room, they would negotiate a second fee with the “masseuse” for sex, according to the affidavit.

The affidavit stated that workers would get $30 for every hour they had a customer.  The madam also claimed her employees could make almost $9,000 per month, according to the affidavit. The workers would live in the back of the store and be charged $10 per day for food, according to the affidavit.

Read the whole story at The Casper Star Tribune…

Johns recount sex at Tokyo Massage
By JOSHUA WOLFSON

Four men testified Tuesday they paid for sex at Tokyo Massage with a woman now on trial for prostitution and conspiracy.

Three of the men also told jurors they made agreements with the Natrona County District Attorney’s office to avoid prosecution by cooperating with authorities.

Speaking one after another, the men described similar sexual encounters at Tokyo Massage parlor. All four men identified the woman on trial as the person they had sex with.

Their testimony took place on the first day of trial in Natrona County Circuit Court. The 53-year-old has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Authorities spoke with the men as part of a multi-agency investigation that culminated in January when officers shut down Tokyo Massage. The woman is one of four people charged in connection with the investigation.

The first day of trial focused on whether the woman was the prostitute who had sex with the men. In addition to presenting the johns’ testimony, Assistant District Attorney Joshua Stensaas tried to link the woman to condoms, sexual novelties and provocative clothing seized by investigators during a Jan. 7 search of Tokyo Massage.

“Sex for money, that is what the evidence is going to show,” Stensaas told jurors.

Defense attorney Tim Cotton tried to suggest the johns incorrectly identified the accused while trying to avoid prosecution. The accused, he said, was only staying at Tokyo Massage while visiting a friend.

“This is a case about desperate men and misidentification,” he said.

The johns gave similar accounts of the operations at Tokyo Massage. They described ringing a buzzer to get inside, and negotiating a price for the sex before the services began. Three of the men paid for sexual intercourse. The other man received oral sex.