2 Investigates: Illicit massage parlors are thriving in Erie County - WGRZ.com

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Police say spas are fronts for sex trafficking.


BUFFALO, N.Y. — Some are operating in busy strip plazas in the Buffalo suburbs.


Others hide in plain sight in medical office parks near the University at Buffalo.


They’re even located in neighborhoods, where neon signs beckon customers at the end of side streets, across from churches and near a local high school.


We’re talking about illicit massage parlors — unlicensed spas where police say the real product isn’t back rubs, but sex with vulnerable women who in many cases are victims of human trafficking.


For more than a month — since the raid of a similar spa in Niagara County — 2 On Your Side has been investigating unlicensed massage parlors and wellness spas. We took our findings to local and state police, who said our findings prompted them to launch investigations of their own and obtain search warrants to shut down three of the illicit spas.


Police and federal agents have now raided a total of four spas in Western New York since late April, arresting five people on charges ranging from promoting prostitution to practicing massage therapy without a license, which is a felony in New York State.


“In this case, we’re extraordinarily grateful to Channel 2, who got wind of the story and brought it to our attention,” said Cheektowaga Police Capt. Jeffrey Schmidt. “That allowed us the opportunity to get in, to investigate and to try and help these victims.”

Massage rating websites​

On April 23, 2 On Your Side first reported that the FBI and Niagara County sheriff deputies raided New Elegant Shiatsu Spa in Lockport. Federal prosecutors in papers filed in U.S. District Court said the Transit Road spa was an “illicit massage business.”


Federal agents seized large sums of money and containers with hidden compartments where condoms, ledgers, and other evidence of commercial sex acts were stashed, according to court papers.


The government filed interstate prostitution charges against Linian Song, a Chinese citizen who they say “employed multiple women to provide commercial sex acts.” Song was released on bond from federal custody on May 29 on the condition that she wear a tracking device and surrender her passport.


In the criminal complaint against Song, federal prosecutors listed three escort websites where men rate and describe their “encounters” at massage parlors where sexual acts are offered.


2 On Your Side Investigates accessed those websites, cross-referenced phone numbers and business listings and obtained documents from state government agencies.


Our investigation revealed multiple spas that were operating without the required license for massage therapy, including:

• Health 888 Spa on Sweet Home Road near Rensch Road in Amherst, near the University at Buffalo North Campus.
• Little Foot Spa on Union Road and Maryvale Drive in Cheektowaga, less than a quarter-of-a-mile from Maryvale High School.
• Four Seasons Spa on Broadway near Transit Road in Depew.

These same spas also advertised on escort websites selling sex and in the case of Health 888 Spa, confirmed via text message that sexual services were being offered.


The websites where the spas advertised are like the mobile food app Yelp, but for illicit massage parlors. They feature photos of scantily-clad Asian women who appear young. Experts say that’s meant to play into false cultural stereotypes of Asian woman as docile and hyper-sexualized.


“It’s actually our society as a whole which has a long history of stereotyping these women (and) creating the demand,” said Dr. Yige Dong, an assistant professor in the UB Department of Sociology and Criminology and in the Department of Global Gender and Sexuality Studies. “The idea that Asian women are sex workers became blended into the mainstream culture here.”

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Police take action​

Online ads for all three spas investigated by 2 On Your Side included sexual emojis and pictures of nearly naked women posing in sexually suggestive positions. The ads say the women are “full service” and “do more than you think.”


2 On Your Side sent a text message to the number listed for Health 888 Spa and within minutes, someone at the spa sent pictures of “available girls” and confirmed that in addition to a massage, they would offer a “happy ending,” which is industry slang for a sexual act.


A woman who answered the door at the spa last month closed the door on a 2 On Your Side reporter and photojournalist. When we asked for the owner or manager, a second woman opened the door, but quickly closed it.


On May 17 – nine days after 2 On Your Side informed the Amherst Police chief about the spa – police executed a search warrant at the location and arrested two women employees who police said were from the New York City-area.


Shanshan Fang, 36, and Yanhong Sun, 49, were both charged with practicing massage therapy without a license, which are felonies. They were arraigned in Amherst Town Court and released.


2 On Your Side also investigated Little Foot Spa in Cheektowaga and Four Seasons Spa in Depew.


Cheektowaga Police got a special search warrant that allowed officers and Homeland Security agents into the attached living quarters of Little Foot Spa. Depew Police said Four Seasons Spa had “illegal, makeshift living quarters” for the employees.


Police also seized $81,000 in cash at the two spas. A law enforcement source said that has piqued the interest of federal investigators.

Sex trafficking suspected​

Police who raided the spas in Cheektowaga and in Depew said what’s really going on isn’t simple prostitution. Instead, it’s human trafficking – vulnerable women are forced into sex work without the option to leave.


At all three spas, 2 On Your Side found explicit and sexually suggestive online ads. Surveillance revealed a stream of men coming and going each afternoon.


Spas with an all-male customer base, as well as locked doors requiring patrons to be buzzed in, are common signs that sex may be for sale, according to research by the Polaris Project, an anti-human trafficking nonprofit organization.


“People who go there and engage in their services think that it’s victimless, that they’re giving someone money in exchange for a sexual service,” said Cheektowaga Police Capt. Jeffrey Schmidt. “But what they’re really doing is they’re participating in a rape. These young women have no choice. They are being forced, they are being compelled to engage in sexual acts against their will.”


Dong, the UB professor, said most of the sex workers in this industry “didn’t come to the country wanting to do this. They came to the country in hopes of having a better job and better living conditions and only getting trapped into this.”


Police are now trying to identify the handlers of the women and the overseers of what they believe is a much larger scheme. That has proven difficult for law enforcement agencies in other parts of the country.


“It’s tough to get to the end of it,” Amherst Police Captain Kevin Brown said of the spas. “Every so often they come up. They’re not there for long. They sprout up quickly, draw some attention and move somewhere else.”


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