Two arrests after Kenmore Police raid of illicit massage spa - WGRZ.com

[Charlie Specht]

2 On Your Side Investigates found other illicit spas earlier this year.



BUFFALO, N.Y. — Two women from downstate have been arrested in Kenmore following a law enforcement raid on what police say was an illicit massage spa that sold sex.


Kenmore Police are not releasing the names of the women because they are still investigating whether the business, named "Candy Spa," was part of a sex trafficking operation, Kenmore Police Capt. A.J. Kiefer told 2 On Your Side. He said the two women were from the New York City area. Flushing, Queens, is considered the epicenter of the illicit massage trade in the U.S., according to news articles and law enforcement sources.


Three women were living inside the one-story commercial building on Delaware Avenue near Euclid Avenue, Kiefer said. Sex trafficking experts say employees living at the business can be an indication that women are being trafficked. Kiefer said police are investigating that possibility.


Police shut down the business and posted a cease-and-desist order, Kiefer said. Both were charged with performing a massage without a license. One of the two was also charged with prostitution.


RELATED: 2 Investigates: Illicit massage parlors are thriving in Erie County


Police say the business was similar to those that were the subject of a 2 On Your Side investigation earlier this year.


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


The previous raids took place in Lockport, Cheektowaga, Depew and Amherst.


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.


At the previously raided 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.


A key part of the business model is the use of 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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