Seattle police give more details into massage parlor, human trafficking arrests - KEPR 19

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SEATTLE — Seattle police on Friday said it was a neighbor’s tip about the constant foot traffic in and out of a storefront that led them to discover a widespread sex-trafficking organization.

King County prosecutors have charged Xinzhong Wang, Wei Zang, Ran None Feng, Lina Wang, Liuzhen Mou and Xiaohua Jiang with promoting prostitution and money laundering.

Police Capt. Mike Edwards, who headed the investigation, said the defendants made big money off the sex workers, all while the workers lived in squalor and earned minimal wages.

“They were living on those sites, they were working 14, 20 hour days, seven days a week, no real time off,” Edwards said.

Since launching the investigation in 2015, police said they rescued 26 sex workers. These are women who range in age from 20 to 65, according to police.

Many of the women, police said, were brought to the United States from mainland China with the promise of steady wages and a better life.

While some of the women vanished after police raided the parlors, others connected with local advocates, Edwards said.

“This investigation was about dismantling a criminal organization that was coercing women, sexually exploiting them and trafficking them throughout the United States,” said Deputy Chief of Police Marc Garth-Green.

Seattle police, at one point, had nearly 200 of their officers, advocates and other staff working on the case, Edwards said.

“We began an investigation into what we thought was just going to be an illicit sex parlor, but as that progressed we were able to find out there were several addresses linked to one another and that then started the larger investigation,” Edwards said.

Police said their focus wasn’t on arresting the customers. But one woman who works near one of the former massage parlors said the foot traffic coming in and out of the business was incredible.

“I see a lot of people walking in and out. They are not doing the business, they are doing something else,” the woman told KOMO, asking not to be identified out of concern for her safety.

Police said they are still searching for one more defendant, who has been charged by arrest warrant but has not yet been booked into jail.

Edwards said they’re also working with police and federal agents across the country to find out how the suspects are linked to sex trade operations in other states – including in New York and California.

“Throughout law enforcement we’re all fully aware this problem has been around for a while, it is very well organized, very well connected and we’re working with the federal agencies primarily on that side of it,” Edwards said.

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