Unsealed record details Millcreek massage parlor case

[massage]

FBI says it used various clues to connect site to suspected human trafficking ring that led to Florida man’s arrest.

The FBI said it linked a Millcreek Township massage parlor to a suspected multi-state human trafficking operationby relying on police work, corporate and government records and information gleaned from the results of electronic federal search warrants.

The FBI outlined the use of that evidence in an affidavit of probable cause that was unsealed on Monday in the case against David C. Williams, 41, a Florida businessman whose arrest authorities announced on Friday.

Williams is facing prosecution in U.S. District Court in Pensacola, Florida, on charges of interstate travel and the use of a facility in aid of racketeering and a money-laundering conspiracy and harboring illegal aliens for commercial advantage or private commercial gain. He is in custody and has a detention hearing in Pensacola on Tuesday.

Williams is accused of “operating a human trafficking ring under the guise of massage parlors,” according to the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office, which helped in the probe.

The affidavit of probable cause, which supports the criminal complaint against Williams, details allegations of prostitution and other illegal activity at Asian massage parlors at a number of locations in northern Florida, including Pensacola, where the FBI said the investigation originated in July 2017.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Florida, based in Tallahassee, unsealed the 36-page affidavit, with some information redacted, in response to queries from several news organizations, including the Erie Times-News. The district includes Pensacola.

The affidavit does not detail activity that occurred at the massage parlor in Millcreek, called 1407 Massage, at 1407 Peninsula Drive. But during the Florida-based probe, according to the affidavit, the FBI connected Williams to 22 Asian massage parlors nationwide, with 16 of the locations in Florida. On the list, according to the affidavit, are also a massage parlor in Virginia and 1407 Massage in Millcreek.

Listen: GoErie interviews and podcasts

“As the investigation continued,” according to the affidavit, the FBI learned that “Williams has been opening new massage parlors across the State of Florida and elsewhere. However, it appears that Williams now has been using nominees to conceal his ownership of the massage parlors and their corresponding bank accounts.”

The FBI found the massage parlors “to be associated with Williams through law enforcement reporting, electronic federal search warrant results and corporate and government records, amongst other things,” the affidavit said. One search warrant was for Williams’ Google account, which included IRS forms and images of checks, according to the affidavit.

Also according to the affidavit, the FBI in Florida learned of “a parallel investigation” of Williams that the FBI in Pittsburgh was conducting in Pennsylvania. The FBI in Pittsburgh discovered that a person connected to Williams “was listed as an organizer and/or associated with multiple massage parlors in Pennsylvania,” according to the affidavit. That person’s name is blacked out in the affidavit.

Williams was arrested on Aug. 9. On Thursday, the day before the government unsealed the criminal complaint against him, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies raided 1407 Massage in Millcreek and a number of other Asian massage parlors that authorities said were connected to Williams in Pennsylvania and Florida.

The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office, which helped conduct the raid in Millcreek, said in a statement that Williams was charged with “exploiting undocumented women and offering sexual acts for money during massages at his parlors.” The Attorney General’s Office said investigators in Pennsylvania on Thursday also served eight other search warrants in western Pennsylvania, at massage parlors in Turtle Creek, Carnegie, Jeannette, Bridgeville and McKees Rocks.

The FBI launched the probe against Williams in Pensacola and Panama City, Florida, after receiving two anonymous tips through the National Human Trafficking Hotline in July 2017, according to the affidavit of probable cause. Investigators used a confidential informant to confirm “sexual acts being offered in exchange for money” at a massage parlor in Panama City, the affidavit said.

The investigation expanded from there.