Three more massage parlors in Methuen, Massachusetts, have been shut down over allegations of human trafficking, bringing the total to five.
Mayor D.J. Beauregard said Tuesday that the city’s Department of Health, Human Services, and Inspections had issued cease-and-desist orders to Yellow Lilly Day Spa and Lavender Spa, both on Baldwin Street, and Oriental Spa on Swan Street. He added that the city suspects the businesses of being fronts for human trafficking.
The city said inspections at the three businesses found “unlicensed activity, evidence of unlawful habitation within the commercial spaces, and multiple code violations including unpermitted construction, blocked egress, and unsanitary conditions.” Information was sent to the Methuen Police Department.
The orders came after Beauty Garden Spa on Wallace Street and Eastern Bodywork Therapy on Hampshire Street were shut down. Beauregard said over the weekend that he was “declaring war on human trafficking.”
The first massage parlor to be busted, Beauty Garden Spa just off Route 110 in Methuen on Wallace Street, has been managed by 38-year-old
Suping Zhu, the 38-year-old New York woman who managed Beauty Garden Spa, was arrested on charges of deriving support from prostitution, keeping a house of ill fame and trafficking a person for sexual servitude, Methuen police said Sunday. She faced a judge Monday in Lawrence District Court, where she was assigned an attorney.
“We are moving aggressively to identify and close these businesses, to crack down on the evildoers who profit from human suffering, and to hold landlords, traffickers, and johns accountable,” Beauregard said in a statement Tuesday. “The demand created by johns is what fuels this evil criminal industry, and as Police Chief Scott McNamara indicated previously, we are targeting you next with the full might of the law. Methuen has zero tolerance for human trafficking — period.”
Beth Foote, who lives near Beauty Garden Spa, said that for the better part of two years, she personally watched unusual activity — including women from New Jersey and New York being dropped off by bus, she described.
Foote took photos and reported what she saw to police, who began undercover operations. They were able to obtain a search warrant and inside, allegedly found living quarters for two women in the basement.
That prompted the Methuen Department of Health, Human Services and Inspections to get involved, since the business is in a commercially zoned area. It was ordered closed, with the city citing the “unlawful habitation of individuals.”
Investigators interviewed two women who were working in the spa, and ended up arresting Zhu, who now faces charges of deriving support from prostitution, keeper of a house of ill fame and trafficking person for sexual servitude.
“I knew 100% what was happening,” Foote said. “It was obvious. There were women being dropped off with luggage. They were in big buses. They were from New York and New Jersey. It was obvious.”
“They didn’t worry about being caught,” she added.
Resources for victims of sexual assault are available through the National Sexual Violence Resources Center and the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 800-656-4673, and Massachusetts provides this list of statewide and resources for sexual assault survivors.
Methuen Police Chief Scott McNamara said an arrest warrant has also been issued for the other co-manager of Beauty Garden Spa, 36-year-old Yiuyu Huang of Brooklyn, New York, and his department is working with local and federal authorities to see what they can do to get that person into custody and extradited to Massachusetts.
He said his department will also be pursuing charges against the customers of the spa and investigating other potential locations in the city.
“This is our first step to eradicate human trafficking in our city,” McNamara said. “We recognize it’s a pervasive problem in Methuen and beyond. We’re doing everything we can to make sure this victimization does not continue.”