Des Moines not alone in struggle with Illicit massage parlors - DesMoinesRegister.com

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Massage parlors have popped up across the metro. Tom Coleman, a local businessman near one of the parlors, and his brother, City Councilman Chris Coleman discuss some of the concerns of some have about prostitution and trafficking. Brian Powers/The Register

This spa in Beaverdale Place has generated licensing complaints to the Iowa Board of Massage.(Photo: Brian Powers)


Erotic massage businesses like those growing in Iowa also are expanding across the United States.

Concerns about human trafficking, prostitution and unlicensed workers have prompted cities to take a mix of action, but the underground nature of the illicit parlors and their mobility make the industry hard to curtail.

A Reader’s Watchdog probe last week found more than two-dozen massage businesses were advertising in the Des Moines metro area on Craigslist and Backpage.com, with several using suggestive advertising to lure new customers.

The national anti-trafficking group Polaris has identified Des Moines as one of its top 100 cities of concern.

State and local officials say constituents want them to weed illicit businesses, and some called on local, state and federal law enforcement to do more.

DES MOINES REGISTER

Concerns grow as massage parlors spread across Iowa


Steve Franklin, the community development director in Urbandale, said police have been investigating several massage businesses in that suburb.

Urbandale does not allow businesses that offer massages exclusively — without other spa services — to operate within the city. The city does not require business licenses, but it does require business owners to submit a narrative explaining the services they will provide, he said.

“We have to make an informed decision” about each business, he said. “If it seems professional, it might be OK.”

SuAnn Donovan, who oversees neighborhood inspections for the city of Des Moines, said there’s been no concentrated effort so far to address illicit parlors through local ordinances. The businesses are considered retail and don't require a local permit to operate, she said.

But the inspections division can take action if people are living in commercial buildings, she said. Commercial spaces don’t meet the same building and safety codes required of residential homes.

The Watchdog probe found arrests for prostitution and unlicensed workers have been made around the state. But Des Moines police say they have never been offered sex during a sting, and some of the businesses appear to be legitimate.

However, complaints of unlicensed activity at four businesses, including Lotus Spa in Beaverdale Place in Des Moines, are scheduled for discussion during a Dec. 6 meeting of the Iowa Board of Massage. That spa has been the focus of residents' concern, but the co-owner told the Watchdog the business is legitimate.

Watchdog made a request for the locations of the other three businesses but did not receive an immediate response.

The Board of Massage can take licensing action, but it has no enforcement authority.

Prosecuting massage parlors


Neither U.S. attorney’s office in the northern or southern districts of Iowa have prosecuted recent cases involving human trafficking at massage parlors in Iowa.

But cases are being made across the country.

Last month, a Wisconsin veterinarian, Brian Lee Kersten, was convicted of paying a New York madam to bring young Chinese women to Minnesota for work in massage businesses. He also helped transport East Coast prostitutes to hotels in Minnesota.

The New York woman would place ads in Chinese newspapers in Atlanta and New York recruiting women as masseuses. She flew them to the Twin Cities, and placed ads for their services online.

The women would receive $20 of the $80 they charged for massage services, plus tips for sex acts, according to the criminal complaint.

Kersten collected money from the prostitutes for the woman in New York and wired more than $45,000 to China. Airport surveillance showed his vehicles picking up new women at the airport, according to the complaint.

In June last year in Utah, law enforcement conducted the largest human trafficking raid in state history, serving search warrants on 11 massage parlors. The owner of the parlor took half of what the women were paid for performing sex acts. The women had been trafficked illegally into the U.S.

A bust similarly heralded as Ohio’s largest happened last year in January, when police raided four locations that were connected to human trafficking that stretched from China to New York to California.

Research: Business differs


Two years ago, the Urban Institute, a national policy think tank and research organization, completed a years-long study of the sex trade in eight U.S. cities, focusing extensively on massage parlors. The cities included Atlanta, Kansas City, Dallas, Denver, Miami, San Diego, Seattle and Washington, D.C.

Interviewing a mix of local, state and federal enforcement, they found that women hired in the massage industry mostly were of Korean or Chinese decent.

Some had entered the country on legitimate visas. Other women were smuggled into the U.S. by “snakeheads,” who brought them via Panama, Guatamala, Mexico or Canada, accruing debts as much as $50,000 per person.

Law enforcement in the different cities disagreed about how extensively women in the trade were likely victims of human trafficking.

In some cities such as Dallas, massage parlors operating in the sex trade appeared highly organized and, in some cases, could be traced to organized crime. In others, most of the women involved appeared to get their start in the trade in major cities such as Houston, Dallas or Seattle, then networked to open businesses offering prostitution in different cities.

“All the places want fresh girls every three to four weeks. It keeps the customer base going,” a Denver law enforcement official told researchers. “The girls, they’ll work three to four weeks, they’ll make a bunch of money, they’ll take a week off and then they’ll get on the phone and call their friend who is in Houston who’s getting ready to move somewhere else.”

In cities like San Diego, police admitted the parlors were no longer a law enforcement priority. Many of the women involved, they said, came from remote parts of China, making it difficult to find translators to carry out investigations.

When city officials moved to crack down on the women living in the businesses, the women moved to nearby apartments, law enforcement said.

In Seattle, where the parlors have exploded in the last decade, some of the fronts for prostitution also offer tanning to diversify services, though women were not being accepted as clients.

Law enforcement there said the businesses appeared to also operate off-site prostitution, because receipts found at raids suggest they send thousands via Western Union back to China, much more than the massage business itself appeared to take in. The city saw a rise in brothels run in homes, along with massage businesses.

Using public nuisance laws


Elsewhere around the country, some cities have enhanced public nuisance laws to go after the businesses.

In Sandy Springs, Ga., for example, city officials beefed up the law so that they could obtain injunctions against property owners, as well as owners of businesses where sex is for sale.

In Macon, Ga., where the illicit sex trade was thriving, local law enforcement were given authority in 2012 to conduct random inspections during work hours at the massage business. An ordinance required the businesses to have a license and made owners submit to background checks.

This year, the city of Los Angeles also filed a lawsuit against the owner of four massage parlors, citing the state’s Red Light Abatement Law. The move came after parts of the city saw a spike in the illicit businesses after the state made massage therapy licensing voluntary, according to the Los Angeles Times.

In the ongoing lawsuit, the city attorney alleged the owners were running brothels, and advertised their services on Craigslist.

State nuisance law allows county attorneys and citizens to take civil action against nuisance businesses and the owners of the buildings in which they exist. Cities and counties often also have their own nuisance laws. State code also provides criminal penalties for public nuisances.

City council members and lawmakers from Des Moines say they are mulling what to do next.

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