Sex trafficking is behind the lucrative illicit massage business. Why police can't stop it.

Within hours of a police raid of Miami Beach massage parlors in 2017, Chief Daniel Oates stood before TV cameras praising his agency’s eight-month effort to crack down on prostitution and human trafficking.

Officers had detained 10 Asian women and, through interpreters, tried to determine which of them were victims and which were perpetrators. The city, he said, had shut down four brothels posing as spas.

“Obviously, the message to these kinds of operations is that they won’t be tolerated in our town,” Oates said.

Even before the news conference started, however, the case had begun to fall apart. Some sex workers – potential witnesses against the organizers – were gone.

One of the spas would avoid being shut down altogether. The one person charged with trafficking in the case later was allowed to plead guilty to profiting from prostitution, a lesser charge.

Police across the nation have touted sex spa stings for years as evidence that they are cracking down on rampant human trafficking. The publicity surrounding these operations hit a high in February in raids in South Florida that led to charges against New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who police said was caught on video paying for sex acts.

But a USA TODAY review of three high-profile raids – the one in Miami Beach and others in nearby Hollywood and Southwest Florida – found that law enforcement’s tough-on-trafficking rhetoric fizzled after initial headlines. Charges were dropped or pleaded down. Spas often popped up in the same or new locations. And any notion of going after higher-ups who profit from trafficking, including international crime figures bringing women from overseas, never materialized.

“Almost every local law enforcement that does one of these cases, the quote usually is, ‘We think we’re getting the tip of the iceberg,’ ” said Brad Myles, CEO of Polaris, a nonprofit group that operates the National Human Trafficking Hotline. “What is the iceberg? Or how many icebergs are there? I don’t know if anyone has a really good handle on who the masterminds are.”

Polaris estimated that 9,000 illicit massage parlors operate in the USA based on reviews on Rubmaps, a Yelp for sex spas, bringing in about $2.5 billion a year.

Hints of a broader organization not touched by law enforcement stings hover beneath the surface. Through a search of thousands of Florida public records ranging from corporate filings to massage licenses, USA TODAY found connections among more than a third of the 41 spas raided in the three recent operations alone, and links from them to a larger network of potentially suspect massage parlors all over the state.

Prosecutors defend their track record by noting that a felony trafficking charge is just one tool in their toolbox. Because of the difficulty of getting victims to cooperate, they can look to alternatives that do not require proof that a victim was coerced, such as racketeering or money laundering.

“I think much bigger and broader than just that one charge,” said Katherine Fernandez Rundle, the Miami-Dade state attorney.

Fernandez Rundle ran through her list of what matters most: “What were the outcomes of the cases? Did we shut them down? Was somebody punished? Was somebody held accountable? Was a victim rescued? Were there proceeds that were taken? Were business licenses forfeited? Did people go to prison? Did people go to jail?”

Operation Spa LLC, a multi-agency, two-year law enforcement operation in Southwest Florida, convicted six operators for racketeering and/or money laundering, resulting in probable prison sentences of up to three years. Even in that case, though, eight women pleaded guilty to prostitution-related crimes.

Florida law enforcement often falls back on charging women working in the massage parlors. Of the 57 arrested in the three recent raids, all but three were women, mostly immigrants from China but also Cuba, Haiti, Guatemala and elsewhere. Forty-two faced prostitution charges.

After each of two summer raids in Hollywood, the department released a poster with mugshots of those charged, touting its aggressive approach. The posters were a sea of women and one man.

“We will continue to crack down on these types of businesses, which are used as fronts for prostitution,” Police Chief Tomas Sanchez said in a news release. “These massage parlors breed other criminal activities, including human and sex trafficking, drug sales and money laundering.”

By the time police completed the second operation, they had charged at least 30 women with prostitution.

Though the case in which Kraft was charged continues, it’s followed the same trajectory.

In March, Martin County Sheriff Will Snyder told USA TODAY that the spas involved had “all the trappings of human trafficking.” Today, only one woman who ran a spa in Vero Beach faces charges even tangentially tied to trafficking, through a racketeering statute. 

Prosecutors charged Kraft with misdemeanor solicitation – which he is fighting. The two women accused of providing sexual services to him each face a felony related to prostitution.

Human trafficking experts compared law enforcement's spa approach to arresting corner drug dealers instead of going after cartels.

“You take the dealer off the street, and another dealer pops up," said Carmen Pino, who participated in massage parlor investigations before he retired as a federal agent with Homeland Security Investigations in Miami. "We can shut them down today, they’re just going to move somewhere else. Because you’re still not getting the big organizers.” 

America’s understanding of human trafficking evolved as lawmakers and the public began to view those caught up in forced sex work as victims, not criminals.

Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act in 2000, citing growth of the sex trade and of the criminal enterprises behind it. Victims, Congress said, were “repeatedly punished more harshly than the traffickers themselves.”

Florida followed the federal government’s lead. In 2004, Gov. Jeb Bush signed the state’s first human trafficking law. Trafficking carries heavy penalties: up to 20 years in prison at the federal level and more in some states. In Florida, convicted traffickers must register as sex offenders, and victims receive greater protections – including the possibility of getting their criminal records erased.

As states passed get-tough laws to punish traffickers, law enforcement agencies stepped up their efforts to train officers how to respond when they encounter sex workers.

Many departments bring in experts to train patrol officers and detectives to recognize telltale signs of human trafficking. Women might be licensed for massage in more than one state, so they can be moved around with ease. Flushing, New York, is a common trafficking port of entry from overseas, so that Queens neighborhood might appear on their travel documents. If they don’t have identification, someone else might be holding it to limit their ability to leave.

Police have turned to digital resources, tracking movement by traffickers on social media and scouting for locations of interest via online review boards such as Rubmaps. Miami Beach police launched their investigation after concerned citizens shared screenshots from Rubmaps with elected officials.

Task forces organized by federal and local agencies deputized health inspectors, business leaders and bus drivers to report the more subtle clues to sex slavery, such as men coming and going at all hours, regular movement of workers to and from the spas and stored bedding, suitcases and cooking supplies.

Experts said there’s been a sea change in how police and prosecutors view these cases. Focus has shifted from sex workers to traffickers reaping the proceeds – though that hasn’t been universally adopted.

Among the most prominent cases following the new model: a sting in Minnesota in 2016, which began with a tip from law enforcement in Arizona about women rotating through apartment complexes.

The operation led to what Minnesota authorities called one of the largest sex trafficking rings ever dismantled by the federal government. Hundreds of Thai women were trafficked to U.S. spas and brothels, and tens of millions of dollars were laundered back to Thailand.

Several things set that investigation apart: The multi-agency effort was led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota, instead of police, and it relied on federal agents who specialized in financial and immigration crimes.

Law enforcement went after organized crime from the start, charging higher-level members of the organization instead of women working in the spas. They partnered with the Thai Community Development Center, which helped build trust with victims.

That trust, Minnesota prosecutors said, can be undermined if the women are charged with prostitution. Without the help of victims, it’s harder to meet the law’s standard of proving force, fraud or coercion.

“It’s very difficult to build a victim-centered case if you’re also prosecuting them,” said Laura Provinzino, assistant U.S. attorney in Minnesota.

Thirty-six people have been convicted or pleaded guilty to their roles in the organization. Sixteen were convicted of sex trafficking conspiracy – five identified by law enforcement as higher-ups in the organization were convicted in a jury trial after only one day of deliberations.

What happened in Minnesota is the exception, not the rule.

In Florida – which ranks third after California and Texas for human trafficking reports – stings have been carried out against dozens of massage parlors. Those raids almost never led to trafficking charges.

USA TODAY reviewed the cases of nearly 500 people charged with human trafficking from 2008 to 2017 in Florida. Just 15% were convicted of trafficking; most saw their charges reduced, changed or dropped completely. Of the three people charged in spa cases, none ended up with a conviction for trafficking.

In Hollywood, police conducted undercover operations inside 24 Broward County spas during the summers of 2016 and 2017 in Operation Red Light. No one went to prison, not even two spa officials who acknowledged they tried to bribe police.

In Southwest Florida, the state Department of Law Enforcement led Operation Spa LLC, an investigation that culminated in raids of 13 spas from Naples to Tallahassee in June 2017. Even though the state’s investigative summary noted numerous signs of trafficking, no one faced that charge.

The Miami Beach raid of four spas went further than most, leading to one of the three human trafficking charges. Police charged Mi Cha Jones with trafficking, saying women at the spa told them that Jones knew they were engaging in sex acts and that she withheld much of their earnings to pay for room and board.

As the case progressed, the state attorney offered Jones a deal: Plead guilty to profiting from prostitution. Her sentence? Probation and court costs.

Law enforcement faced challenges in the case, including deciphering business paperwork written in Mandarin, but the biggest hurdle was the two victims, both of whom were picked up in the raid and refused to cooperate with prosecutors.

Without their testimony, Fernandez Rundle said, there was no way to prove they had been forced into prostitution.

Richard Hull joined Miami Beach police on their raid in 2017, representing the citizen’s police advisory board that wanted the spas flushed from their neighborhood. One of the spas, Jade Massage, shared an alley with a private school.

Seeing the conditions the women “lived, ate, slept (and) worked in” altered Hull’s perspective.

“You have kids going to a Montessori school at $18,000 a year, and you have some poor girl coming here as a slave not able to leave the place of work in the same block,” Hull said. “It shouldn’t be happening in this country.”

After the raids, at least half of the 41 raided parlors were reviewed again on Rubmaps, suggesting sex acts continued to be sold. There is no way for USA TODAY to verify those reports, which are posted anonymously, and some spa managers and workers vehemently denied sex activity continues. A few of the spas were caught up in subsequent police efforts.

USA TODAY Network reporters visited all 41 spa locations this spring and found 13 that were still massage parlors. For some, documents indicate the same people are involved in managing the business. For others, it’s hard to tell.

To neighbors, as well as nearby businesses and their patrons, who’s in charge is immaterial if the spas continue as fronts for trafficking and prostitution.

Wedged between restaurants, pawn shops, laundromats and liquor stores, the raided massage parlors typically stand out only because of what can’t be seen. Windows are obscured by signs, giant photos, curtains or darkened glass. Often, doors are kept locked, requiring clients to be buzzed in. Neon “open” signs are common, as are advertisements out front for special services.

Bonita Spa in Hollywood advertises a “Brazilian Moon Shower” in green, yellow and blue lights. It has been raided more than once, resulting in arrests in 2016 and 2017, two of which led to charges and no contest pleas. Corporate records indicate it has stayed under the same ownership. According to Rubmaps reviews posted as recently as June, offerings may still extend beyond showers.

“She is pretty open with what she offers from the get go and thus I ask her to skip the massage and we got to business,” one reviewer said.

A worker there told USA TODAY that she didn’t speak English but would give the reporter’s business card to her manager. The manager did not reach out, and subsequent calls to the spa were not returned.

The Hollywood Police Department declined multiple interview requests and did not answer a lengthy list of detailed questions from USA TODAY. Miranda Grossman, the department’s public information manager, said she could not comment because the department is conducting follow-up investigations.

“These investigations are ongoing and are part of a larger and disturbing picture of illegal massage parlors that are a front for commercial sex and human trafficking networks,” she said.

Citing the ongoing nature of the Operation Spa case, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Office of Statewide Prosecution declined interview requests from USA TODAY. Neither answered a list of detailed questions.

In early April, a reporter stopped at the address on Pine Ridge Road where Asian Massage of Naples had been raided two summers ago by state special agents. The parlor has a new name, Naples Healthy Spa. A license posted on the wall listed the owner as Guohua Zhang.

Six days earlier, Zhang had been arrested by the Collier County sheriff after an undercover officer said Zhang accepted $200 to perform oral sex at the spa during a massage. Zhang signed a deferred prosecution agreement. If she satisfies the conditions – which include community service and AIDS/HIV testing – the state attorney will drop the prostitution charge.

Untangling the roots of sex trade networks undoubtedly taxes the resources of law enforcement. But public documents offer plenty of intriguing leads.

USA TODAY found evidence that spas are interconnected at Florida’s Division of Corporations and its Board of Massage Therapy, in records related to the businesses behind the three high-profile raids.

Massage parlors seem to be in perpetual motion, as if stuck on spin cycle. Companies are incorporated and dissolved. Names and addresses are added and removed, swapped from one company to another or discarded when the pressure is on.

Most of the 41 spas raided were run through limited liability corporations, which provide a layer of anonymity to business owners. Compared with regular corporations, LLCs are easy to set up and Florida, like most states, allows them to include foreign nationals .

In documents, parlors may appear to be owned by someone working on site, sometimes listed as the LLC’s registered agent, officer or ambassador. Human trafficking experts said those individuals can start out as victims before being promoted to house managers or might be repeat customers tapped as straw owners. The raided spas had revolving doors of registered agents, officers and ambassadors.

Angelina Li of Jal Accounting filed paperwork to remove a woman from her post as one company’s registered agent less than two weeks after the woman was arrested by Hollywood police at a Jade Spa. Li subbed in another woman who had been the registered agent for the company running a different Jade Spa in Miami Beach.

A year later, police raided that second Jade Spa.

Chad Brink has worked on a dozen trafficking cases over his 25-year career as supervising special agent for Arizona’s Financial Crimes Task Force. He said the turnover USA TODAY observed resembles a model he’s seen, in which the spas are essentially franchises of a larger operation.

The owners “basically lease out or sublet massage parlors, trying to rotate the girls through, so they don’t get caught as often,” Brink said. “Lady A is going to be the owner for six months, then an inspection or something happens, and right after the inspection, she sells the business. Really she’s just releasing the franchise back to the original owner.”

Brink said LLCs and the certified public accountants filing their paperwork play an integral middleman role, intentionally obscuring the true owners.

Li said she works with only a handful of spa clients and does not know of any illegal activity or efforts to hide owners.

“I'm not running the business, and I'm not even in the business, so how can I?” she said. “We just have bookkeeping for whatever the client is.”

Regardless of intent, the churn complicates matters for law enforcement.

On the night of the Miami Beach raid, police cordoned off Lulu Massage with yellow tape, its “OPEN” sign still lit but its doors shut.

Four days earlier, Olive Spa Inc. – a company registered to another spa in Miami – had changed its address to Lulu’s location. Two days after the raid, Lulu’s original LLC was dissolved.

The switch was suspicious, said Daniel Morgalo, a Miami Beach police captain. It prevented the city from keeping the spa closed because the business officially belonged to someone new, who was not in charge when undercover evidence was gathered.

“It is frustrating for the investigators because sometimes it's like sweeping water,” Morgalo said. “No matter how hard you sweep, it still comes back.”

Youngmei Cai & Associates handled the transfer of Olive Spa to the address of Lulu’s, which had been a Jal client for years. The two accounting firms are within an hour’s drive of each other along Florida’s East Coast

The names of the firms and their representatives – Li and Joseph Leung at Jal Accounting and Yongmei Cai – appear on records for nearly a dozen of the spas targeted in the three raids USA TODAY reviewed. Registered agents and officers who appeared alongside the CPAs indirectly connect a handful more.

In total, reporters found more than 60 spas in Florida related to 100 LLCs that used the same accounting firms or registered agents, according to corporate filings. At least three-quarters of those spas have been reviewed on Rubmaps since 2017.

USA TODAY found no mention of either CPA firm in public police and court documents related to the raids.

Cai, 48, and Leung, 65, are licensed accountants. Li, 37, is not. Chinese-language websites include referrals to Leung’s firm; Cai says on her Facebook profile that she is from Wuhan, China, and advertises on her website that she speaks Chinese. Spas are front and center in both firms’ public portfolios, along with Asian import, investment and real estate businesses.

Contacted by phone, Cai, like Li, denied any knowledge of illegal activity – although she said she was aware of the police raids.

“We do our due diligence as a CPA, but we do not know any human trafficking,” Cai said. “Because I’m a CPA, I only talk numbers and financial statement.”

Leung could not be reached for comment.

In its executive summary for Operation Spa, state law enforcement officials said using limited liability companies disguised the nature of the business and concealed its proceeds. It alone among the three raids mentioned the use of LLCs.

The case listed four companies that officers said were run by Robert Jones; his wife, Xuan Lang; and her brother, Jun Lang – all of whom were arrested. Jones and Jun Lang face prison time. Xuan Lang faces 21 months of community control.

One of Jones’ spas turned up in USA TODAY’s search with a connection to Youngmei Cai – she was the registered agent on an LLC registered to the spa’s address during the investigation. That connects Operation Spa to the Miami Beach raid two months later.

Law enforcement never connected those dots.

Morgalo said his department and the agencies behind Operation Spa didn’t share information about their respective investigations. The accounting firm connections unearthed by USA TODAY, he said, “would be something that I would want to look at as an investigator.”

Behind the pastel facades of a dozen spas in Southwest Florida, agents found signs that women workers were brought there to live on site. The state’s investigative summary details trips back and forth from parlors to airports, plane tickets from New York, suitcases and shipments of women’s clothing, and Costco grocery receipts.

An undercover agent reported that Jun Lang, who said he ran the massage parlors but didn’t own them, detailed how the women got there: A family member brought them from New York.

Nearly two years later, Operation Spa LLC is nearly concluded, with sentences for prostitution, racketeering and money laundering – but no one faces a human trafficking charge. In April, USA TODAY reporters visited the 13 raided locations. Five remained massage parlors.

An “open” sign hung in the window of Asian Massage of Naples on Davis Boulevard in April. Yujiao Zhan said she owned the place and another location, Jade Spa in Cape Coral. Zhan said ownership of the two parlors changed “about a year ago. It is a new place.”

The corporation listed on both of their business massage licenses formed a month after the raid. That LLC’s primary operating address is the location of a third spa in Naples.

All three spas have been reviewed on Rubmaps in the past six months. One customer of Asian Massage of Naples in January used the abbreviation of a slang term for masturbation: “She asked if I would like anything extra. Asked about prices. Went back and forth one time and settled for a HJ.”

In 2017, agents made one of their arrests at Jade Spa, where they said a woman worker had negotiated to masturbate an undercover officer for $60. Today, a red neon sign illuminates its name in one storefront of a beige strip mall on a major thoroughfare and behind a preschool.

A USA TODAY network reporter was greeted there in April by an employee wearing a red bikini and a thigh-length robe. She spoke little English but said through Google Translate that no sex services are provided.

Axon reported from Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Miami and Miami Beach. Braun reported from Naples, Sarasota, Bradenton and Cape Coral. Karl Etters reported from Tallahassee. 

Contributing: Brooke Baitinger, John Kelly, Sara Marino and Brett Murphy.