Police take guns, body armor from Gig Harbor home of Lakewood massage parlor operators -...

[massage]

Lakewood police arrested the proprietors of a massage parlor Tuesday after a two-year investigation into human trafficking, and seized two sets of body armor and an automatic weapon in the process, according to Pierce County prosecutors.

Gig Harbor residents Guang Zheng, 45, and Dan Yu, 37, were arraigned Wednesday in Pierce County Superior Court. The Taiwanese nationals each face seven felony charges and seven misdemeanor charges of unlawful operation of a licensed business, and their bail was set at $100,000 each.

Prosecutors noted in charging documents that they reserve the right to add charges of promoting prostitution, human trafficking and leading organized crime, as well as felony firearms charges.

According to charging documents and Lakewood police:

Lakewood police began investigating the Treat Your Feet massage parlor at 8904 South Tacoma Way in October 2015, using undercover detectives to get massages from the business.

Records and surveillance footage showed that Zheng and Yu were responsible for transporting the massage parlor’s employees to and from work.

The two were almost always operating the front desk at the parlor, escorting customers to massage rooms or speaking in a foreign language to the employees to get them to escort the customers to the massage rooms.

The same seven people were almost always working at the parlor, and the police officers got at least two massages from each masseuse, none of whom were licensed with the state Department of Health. (Yu maintained a license, but she never gave a massage to any of the undercover officers.) The first time an unlicensed masseuse gives a massage, it is a misdemeanor in Washington state, with each subsequent massage given is deemed a felony.

During the investigation, Lakewood police detectives were solicited for prostitution.

After watching Zheng and Yu regularly go to apartments near the massage parlor, Lakewood police on Tuesday served search warrants there.

In the first apartment were four women who lived there, and in the second were a man and woman. The seventh employee was later contacted at the massage parlor.

Police interviewed the people through an interpreter, and each said they lived at the apartments, and money was taken from their paychecks to pay for rent. Each also said they didn’t have massage licenses.

All seven were released without being charged.

Officers also served a search warrant at Zheng’s and Yu’s Gig Harbor home, where they found 17 firearms, silencers and other firearm accessories, and two sets of military-grade sets of body armor. Among the firearms is an automatic MP5 9mm gun. The two were arrested.

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