Massage arrests spark concerns about human trafficking - St. George Daily Spectrum

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A sign advertises Massage Therapy's business location on Tabernacle Street.(Photo: Kevin Jenkins / The Spectrum & Daily News)Buy Photo


Last weekend, Alpine resident Brooke Robinson and her husband visited family members in St. George for a brief getaway from Northern Utah’s frigid, snowy weather.

The couple, both of them attorneys, searched for a place where Robinson could get a massage shortly before they headed back north. When their initial choices said they didn’t have availabilities, Robinson ended up at a Tabernacle Street parlor where many of the city’s older homes have been converted to office businesses.

Robinson was surprised at what she found – Chinese “girls,” including one who didn’t speak English “at all,” and a “terrible” massage that was nothing like the quality she’d found at other establishments, she said. She wasn’t surprised, however, when she learned a few days later that St. George Police, working with federal Homeland Security Investigations agents, had made arrests at the location, identified as Massage Therapy, as well as a handful of other local massage businesses, alleging the employees were operating without state licenses and providing illegal sexual services on the side.

“Once I got there, I realized it was kind of a sketchy place. … It was in a nicer part of town, so I wasn’t thinking that (would be a problem),” Robinson said Friday. “I’m mostly kind of frustrated, and a little bit embarrassed as well. I feel like I should have been more in tune to this.”

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Update: 7 women arrested in massage-prostitution sting


Robinson’s embarrassment wasn’t simply because she’d received a massage only a few days before the Tuesday sweep by law enforcement was announced. As a lawyer, she represents sexual assault victims, and as a Brigham Young University law student, she volunteered with a Washington, D.C., based organization that fights against the sex trafficking of children within the United States. She then went on to team with another group that fights human trafficking in Utah.

“When we saw that (news report about the arrests) I was just kind of frustrated with myself,” Robinson said. “I should have been more aware. … My little brother was thinking about coming with me, and I’m glad now that he didn’t.”

The girls next door

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A sign advertises services at Golden Coast Massage on Tabernacle Street. (Photo: Kevin Jenkins / The Spectrum & Daily News)


Massage Therapy’s 400 East block street sign is nestled amid businesses that include dental, real estate loan and legal services. A trailer park next door contains about a half dozen homes.

Other establishments where arrests were conducted include Golden Coast Massage in the 200 East block of Tabernacle, in a business complex that also includes various other professional offices. Japan Massage, in the 300 East block of St. George Boulevard, is about a block from The Spectrum and Daily News’ offices and surrounded by a restaurant, a hotel and a bank. Dixie Massage in the 200 North block of Bluff Street shares a building with other therapeutic services, set behind strip mall businesses that include a pair of popular restaurants, finance and appliance offices. A second Dixie Massage location in Washington City’s CottonTown Village occupies a street front location next to a chiropractor’s office.

Those charged with misdemeanor counts of providing massage without a license include Massage Therapy’s Jumei Qin, 47; Golden Coast’s Li Ying, 49, and Yuxoang Wang, 58; Japan Massage’s Shanmei Olmstead, 47, and Yuhua Liu, 47; and Dixie Massage’s Dong Ju Jin, 46, Feng Fang Li, 46, and Geman Li, 35.

Qin, Wang and Feng Fang Li also face charges of sexual solicitation stemming from the investigation, which included reports by undercover officers that they had been propositioned while visiting the businesses. An additional woman, known only as “Vicki,” faces pending charges of sexual solicitation but officers weren’t able to locate her when they made arrests at Japan Massage.

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Vehicles pass Japan Massage on St. George Boulevard on Wednesday. (Photo: Kevin Jenkins / The Spectrum & Daily News)


“Certainly, we as a city don’t want people to have any misconception that this kind of thing is going to be tolerated,” St. George Mayor Jon Pike said Wednesday. “We want to nip it in the bud and send a message. … There’s also some concern about how some of these people have been taken advantage of, perhaps.”

Robinson said when she visited Massage Therapy she paid up front with a credit card swiped on a phone reader without getting a receipt, and she is now asking if she can fight the charge because of her suspicion that the money is supporting illegal activity or even a human trafficking network.

“I don’t want it benefitting anyone in the organization,” she said.

She also said she is concerned that some of the accused workers may be taken advantage of, however.

“If it’s people that seem like they haven’t been here (in the United States) very long … then they’re vulnerable to manipulation,” Robinson said in regard to the masseuse who apparently couldn’t speak any English. “I’d like to see more focus on the people that have gone there (to receive services) – the Johns … rather than the people that are forced into these situations.”

The police department stated in its announcement of the arrests that further action in the ongoing investigation is possible.

The vulnerable type

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Dixie Massage's Washington City location is set in the rustic CottonTown Village. (Photo: Kevin Jenkins / The Spectrum & Daily News)


During the investigation preceding this week’s Asian massage parlor arrests, undercover officers received massages at the establishments but declined proffered sexual services, according to the SGPD’s statement Wednesday.

The officers noted that some of the businesses’ workers claimed to need the money from sexual services – generally reported as oral sex or “happy endings” in which the patron receives masturbation-like stimulation – to obtain basic commodities, according to information provided to the local court.

“The female made minimal talk to the undercover officer during the massage but was able to indicate that she needs the extra money earned from performing sexual acts to purchase food,” some affidavits state, adding that there is a living area at the establishment.

One massage patron not in law enforcement and not seeking sexual services, who asked not to be identified, said last month that he has gotten to know a lot of the women even though he doesn’t speak Chinese and will help them from time to time with getting food from the grocery store or dealing with problems such as hiring a repair contractor.

“(The women) will talk to me without reservation,” he said. “Most of my conversations are through a translator – usually Google. … It’s an interesting juxtaposition of one culture over another. … Probably two-thirds of the women I’ve talked to have become citizens or they want to become citizens.”

Massage Therapy is a converted home that probably has bedrooms, he said, but he’s seen women sleeping on the massage tables.

“Almost all of them have a 10 (a.m.) to 10 (p.m.) operation – they’re working 12 hours a day,” he said. “It’s not slave labor, but it looks like it. For them it’s just a way of life.”

Bad image

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Dixie Massage's St. George location occupies offices alongside other Bluff Street strip mall professionals. (Photo: Kevin Jenkins / The Spectrum & Daily News)


Michael Forrest, a licensed massage therapist who operates StGeorgeMassage.com along Riverside Drive, sees it differently.

“Human trafficking, human slavery is going on,” he said in an interview last month. “I don’t care if it is (only) a misdemeanor. This is huge. … (People) don’t realize they’re actually supporting and participating in organized crime.”

Forrest said his business has grown 35 percent during the past year, and he’s not worried about the illegal operations siphoning off his customers, although he does worry about his employee therapists working late at night because of some patrons’ expectations.

“My concern is, they’ve got a big storefront. Tourists are going to see that,” he said. “It’s tainting people’s image of our community.”

Over the years since he arrived in St. George, Forrest has seen other massage businesses he says were illicit come and go. He claims the illegal massage operations grew from two to seven last year – including businesses that were not part of this week’s sweep.

Pike acknowledged Forrest has been a vocal advocate and was one of the local industry professionals who helped him understand the scope of the problem. Forrest is asking the city to issue a proclamation as part of January’s National Human Trafficking Awareness Month to bring more attention to the situation.

“That’s kind of your worst nightmare – the human trafficking part. We can’t let that lie,” Pike said. “There are people, (massage) professionals, who provide a great service and don’t want their industry to be tarnished.”

Forrest joined Cedar City resident Tevya Ware, an officer with the anti-child-trafficking rescue group Operation Underground Railroad, in a luncheon presentation about the problem Monday for the American Association of University Women in St. George.

A Japan Massage ad on the business's web page advertises "seductive" and "energetic" masseuses. (Photo: Facebook.com)


AAUW members were surprised that news of this week’s arrests followed so closely on the pair’s presentation.

“I guess I was shocked at the extent of the problem and horrified at some of the things that happen to these children (OUR tries to rescue) as well as adults that are basically lured to this country and working for next to nothing,” Nan Bujold said.

“Locally, the perception I got was the best way to voice your outrage is to the governing bodies here – whoever licenses those people,” she said. “This is a pretty G-rated community.”

Daphne Selbert, the group’s photographer, said she is uncomfortable with the thought that “those who have the most to lose,” such as imported workers, are the ones who become the primary target, however.

“I think human trafficking is out there in many forms. Look at the nail salons that have a large number of people who don’t speak English very well. … With the new (White House) administration focused on people who are here illegally, I wonder if those people are going to be targeted,” Selbert said. “They may not be treated fairly but they’re purpose is gaining funds for people back home.”

Making progress

Prostitution arrests are nothing new in the St. George metropolitan area, but most have involved out-of-towners who set up shop temporarily before moving on. Last week’s arrests were distinct in that they involved brick-and-mortar establishments licensed to do business locally, even if the people occupying them aren’t.

But the Asian parlor trend is also spilling over into residential areas. One “adult entertainment” website frequently mined by law enforcement investigators across the country, Backpage.com, posted an ad last March titled “New sweet Asian staff and sweet Asian massage, make you happy – Very happy” for an illicit business in St. George. The ad led to the arrests of two women operating from an HOA on Sunland Drive, in the Morningside area a couple of blocks from Forrest’s legal business, after a customer acknowledged he had responded to the ad and received sexual services for pay.

Guo Jiang, 54, and Xia Ray Yan, 49 resolved their charges Monday when Jiang pleaded guilty to practicing massage without a license and sexual solicitation – the same charges leveled against the more recent defendants. Prosecutors dropped charges of exploiting a prostitute, a felony, and doing business without a license stemming from the allegations that Jiang was using the residence for “encouraging, inducing and otherwise causing” Yan to become or remain a prostitute after helping her travel to Southern Utah from Los Angeles.

Similar charges against Yan were dismissed as part of a deal under which she agreed to testify against Jiang if necessary. Prior attempts to advance the case were fruitless as the court struggled to secure two skilled Mandarin Chinese interpreters from the Salt Lake City area.

From left, Backpage.com CEO Carl Ferrer, former owner James Larkin, COO Andrew Padilla, and former owner Michael Lacey, are sworn-in on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2017, prior to testifying before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Permanent subcommittee hearing into Backpage.com knowing facilitation of online sex trafficking. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen) (Photo: Cliff Owen, AP)


Coincidentally, Backpage.com shut down its adult section Monday shortly after Jiang’s guilty plea. A Senate subcommittee accused the company of covering up evidence of child sex trafficking by selectively editing the wording of its ads, and called on the company’s officers to provide testimony before Congress on Tuesday.

Backpage’s officers refused, and a spokesman for the company said the adult site was replaced with a red "censored" sign that protests what it calls "unconstitutional government censorship."

Most of the suspects arrested in St. George this week are scheduled to be arraigned on their charges Tuesday.

“It’s a concern. I tell a lot of people that there are a lot of things that happen that the average citizen probably isn’t aware of,” Pike said, adding that he may end up advocating to hire additional police officers to deal with a growing population’s problems.

“I’m proud of our police officers,” Pike said. “We want to keep that reality of having a safe community. … We can have great parks and trails and services. But if we don’t feel safe and secure, what’s it all for?”

Follow reporter Kevin Jenkins on Twitter, @SpectrumJenkins. Contact him at 435-674-6253.

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