Read the whole story at Macon.com…

Reports give details of undercover police raids on massage parlors
By AMY LEIGH WOMACK

Closed police files from raids at Macon massage parlors shed light on operations that undercover officers found there.

In 2008 and 2009, a series of raids targeted more than a dozen Macon-area massage parlors and spas that police suspected of being houses of prostitution. As a result, more than 20 women were arrested on various sex charges.

Seven closed Macon police case files describe how undercover police officers entered businesses and paid for massages. Costs ranged from $40 for a half-hour massage to $140 for sex.

In most cases, the officers were led to rooms where they were asked to undress. Some of them were led to showers or were bathed by women working at the massage parlors.

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In each of the cases, the women asked the officers if they wanted additional services. In at least two cases, the women gestured that they were offering sex.

At one massage parlor, a woman asked an officer in June 2008 if he wanted other services after a 10-minute massage. When he replied that he just wanted a massage, the woman said “$40 is for the house, massage, bath and relaxation. We are extra,” according to a police report.

Some of the women touched the officers’ genitals before offering additional services.

At another massage parlor, a woman initiated a sex act on an officer against the officer’s will in July 2008. Then she stood in front of the door, keeping the officer from leaving until she was paid for the act, according to one report.

A stunning development across the pond!  Read more at The Telegraph…

Brothels and prostitutes to be banned from advertising
By Heidi Blake

Massage parlours and escort agencies will be banned from advertising their services in newspapers under Government plans to stifle the sex industry.

Publications carrying advertisements for prostitution could be fined £10,000 under the new law, which will be put forward in Labour’s election manifesto.

The assault on the sex industry is being led Harriet Harman, the women’s minister, and Vera Baird, the solicitor general, amid concerns that many of the advertisements are offering women who have been forced into prostitution by criminal gangs.

A request by the Newspaper Society to remove the adverts in 2008 has had only partial success, with many publications continuing to print them.

The Crown Prosecution Service has already studied a similar law in Ireland and concluded that it could work in the UK.

Mrs Baird said: “It is now appropriate to move against people who make money from advertising prostitutes. The Newspaper Society tightened its guidance on taking such ads but there is still a market that we now have to look to legislation to disrupt.”

A survey of London’s sex industry commissioned in 2008 by Poppy Project, a government-funded group that helps trafficked women, estimated that the 921 brothels it examined made at least £86m a year through their newspaper advertisements alone.

The new law would set clear guidelines about which advertisements will be banned by defining the difference between brothels masquerading as massage parlours and spas offering therapeutic massages.

Advertisements for sex phone lines, carried in many tabloid newspapers, would not fall under the law unless they were a front for arranging prostitution.

It would also become a criminal offence to print cards advertising prostitutes for distribution in telephone boxes and shop windows. Under the current law, it is only an offence to be caught in the act of posting such a card.

Read more at The Union Leader…

Police make arrest in alleged prostitution ring
By KATHRYN MARCHOCKI

They called themselves “Sweet Asian girls” and promised “body relaxation sessions.”

But police allege they were really part of a prostitution ring being run out of a Seabrook apartment complex.

So far, police have arrested one former New York City woman of Chinese descent, a police prosecutor said yesterday, and they are looking for other women who had been set up in the apartment and the person who leased the unit.

“We would like to find out who leased the apartment, who brought the women there and the other women involved prior to this woman,” Detective Scott T. Mendes said.

Police also are investigating whether another woman, who was arrested with an alleged client Wednesday, may have been the victim of human trafficking and have contacted the FBI, said Mendes, who also is the police prosecutor.

The matter came to police attention Jan. 6 when they received complaints from neighbors about a stream of men coming and going from the apartment in the Tudor Crest complex. The men would stay a short time, then leave, police said.

Read more at 2News.tv…

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 NKY.com…

Florence madam sentenced to 15 months
By Jim Hannah

A New York City resident learned Wednesday her punishment for operating a brothel that federal authorities had been trying to shutter for nearly a year.

The madam, who is in her early 50s, received a one year and three month sentence after previously pleading guilty to one count of coercing a person to travel in interstate commerce for the purpose of engaging in prostitution, a violation of the Mann Act.

As part of a plea agreement, Assistant U.S. Attorney Ben Dusing agreed to drop two additional counts of the same crime. The Mann Act, passed by Congress in 1910 to address prostitution and human trafficking, makes it a crime to transport someone across state lines for immoral purposes.

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

Workers would get $30 for every hour they had a customer, the complaint stated.

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 lowhud.com…

Two charged with prostiution at White Plains massage parlor
By Richard Liebson

Two Queens women were arrested Saturday evening after they allegedly offered sex for cash to undercover White Plains cops.

Police investigating the center posed as customers shortly after 6 p.m. and arrested the women after they allegedly offered to perform sex acts for money, police said.

Read more at The New Haven Independent…

This Time, Craigslist Helped The Cops

A recurring nemesis — the online sex ad — has also proved one of the police’s best tools in cracking down on prostitutes.

So revealed Branford police after they closed down an alleged prostitution ring this week. Police said the alleged operation, at Marlow’s Health Studio, operated out of a second-story set of stores at a Branford strip mall.

Based on tips from citizens and a bold advertisement last month on an adult services page of the New Haven area’s “adult services” section of Craigslist, Branford police conducted a major investigation into Marlow’s. Fourteen police officers conducted two simultaneous raids, one in Branford, one in Ansonia, which led to six arrests, including of the alleged co-owner and the manager of the place.

Marlow’s operated in full view at a local mall off Exit 55 of I-95, the police charge. Police closed down the place, which they describe as a full-scale prostitution ring. Lt. Geoffrey Morgan said police carried out the Marlow’s sign that hung in the window, the massage tables and most importantly the client lists and other business records Wednesday night. It is now closed.

Over the last 30 years the place had been known as Marlow’s. Police said it is unclear when it actually became a house of prostitution operating openly above a nail and hair place and steps away from a dog grooming business and a Chinese restaurant. It has been known to be a massage studio and a health club. Police believe ownership changed hands some months ago.

Take a little off the top. Read more at CBC News…

Prostitutes allegedly offered at Calgary hair salon

A Calgary woman who police allege posed as a hair stylist to run a bawdy house faces several charges in one of two unrelated human trafficking cases in the city.

In September, vice-squad officers began watching a woman they say was advertising the erotic services of young Asian women on a free online classified ad service.

The probe led police to the Alternative Hair Design salon and to homes in Calgary, where prostitution and human trafficking were allegedly taking place.

A woman posing as a hair stylist at the salon allegedly made appointments for clients to meet prostitutes.

Police said undercover officers were offered services, including the chance to purchase two teenage Asian women for $5,000 each. Eventually, the two women, both originally from China, were sold to officers for $4,000 each, police said. The women were later found to be 25 and 41 years old.

“Human trafficking is a hugely profitable industry in the world,” said Supt. Roger Chaffin of the Calgary police. “In terms of the price for these particular girls — again it is a fairly rare investigation so I don’t know that this price, how common that price was — but it’s a shocking thing to see humans traded for money and for a relatively low amount of money.”

Read more at The Las Vegas Sun…

Henderson postpones vote on toughening law on massage parlors
Number of licenses would increase because more would need them
By Sam Skolnik

The Henderson City Council on Tuesday postponed action on a proposed ordinance clamping down on massage parlors. Without comment, the vote was moved to early next year, probably in January or February.

The ordinance is an effort to combat illegal activities in massage parlors and “reflexology” establishments, which are supposed to offer a type of “pressure point” massage to the hands and feet.

Both types of establishments throughout the valley have often served as fronts for prostitution. Henderson would like to at least try to put a stop to that.

The ordinance — aiming to be “responsive to community concerns” — would restrict the hours the parlors may operate to 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. It also would forbid the use of tinted glass on the establishments’ exterior windows, and mandate that the front and back doors remain unlocked during business hours. The ordinance would also prohibit “false or deceptive advertising” about the businesses.

The changes would mean massage businesses in Henderson would be more tightly regulated than those in Las Vegas and unincorporated Clark County.