Illicit Wenatchee massage parlor operator captured in Pierce County - NCWLIFE News

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WENATCHEE — The alleged operator of two Wenatchee massage parlors that illegally offered sexual services is now in custody after more than a year on the run.

Linhui Yan, 61, was booked into the Chelan County Regional Justice Center on Wednesday evening after his arrest in Pierce County, according to court records. Yan, who listed a Tacoma address, was charged in 2023 with leading organized crime, money laundering and promoting prostitution at two massage parlors he ran out of rented spaces in Wenatchee.

Yan Yang: Charged with felonies related to the Angel Spa massage scheme.

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Yan and his wife and alleged conspirator, Yan Yang, now 45, slipped away before police from multiple agencies served search warrants on the parlors March 1, 2023. Both have been sought on identical criminal charges ever since.

Ryan Moody, chief of special operations for the Chelan County Sheriff's Office, told NCWLIFE the Yans were believed to have fled to China after evading the searches. Moody said Yan was initially arrested by the Port of Seattle Police upon his return to the country about two weeks ago, but released because he could not be booked into a King County jail.

He was subsequently arrested in Pierce County, and turned over to Chelan County detectives, Moody said.

The Columbia River Drug Task Force and cooperating agencies carried out searches at the businesses, on Chelan and Mission Streets in Wenatchee, as well as three other storefronts in Kennewick and Tacoma. Police said during the raids, they contacted women who'd been hired to offer sexual services at the massage parlors, and found evidence the businesses had been used as living space.

Detectives also seized bank records and $150,000 associated with the businesses, according to Chelan County Superior Court records.

Investigators began probing the businesses in August 2022, when a neighbor of one of the massage storefronts reported suspicious activity at the business. Undercover police who posed as massage clients at the Wenatchee parlors said they were offered sexual contact in exchange for money.

Yan had been previously arrested in Louisiana on similar charges in 2019, when he acted as the renter of one business location used to offer massage and sexual services. Ten women were also taken into custody in that case for allegedly offering sex work. The misdemeanor case against Yan was later dismissed after he paid his court costs.

Until last July, Yan held a Pierce County massage therapist license with the state of Washington. The Department of Health suspended that license in light of his criminal charges.

Last May, while still on the run from their arrest warrants, the Yans sued the police task force for allegedly seizing their funds illegally, saying they were never served proper legal notice that their assets were forfeit. The Columbia River Drug Task Force says the money was collected as payment for prostitution and is therefore evidence. That lawsuit has yet to be resolved, and no court hearing has taken place.


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