The city of Methuen has ordered now five total spa businesses under suspicion of harboring human trafficking operations to close, Mayor D.J. Beauregard announced Tuesday.
“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,” said Beauregard. “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’s Department of Health, Human Services, and Inspections issued cease-and-desist letter to three establishments suspected of being front for trafficking Tuesday, bringing the total business closed in the bust to five. A citywide inspection of suspected location remains ongoing, Methuen officials said.
The spas shut down Tuesday include Oriental Spa on Swan St., Yellow Lilly Day Spa on Baldwin St., and Lavender Spa on Baldwin St. Two spas, Beauty Garden Spa on Wallace St. and Eastern Bodywork Therapy on Hampshire St., were shut down last week.
The alleged human trafficking came to light Friday, when the manager of Beauty Garden Spa Suping Zhu, 38, was arrested and charged with deriving support from prostitution, keeper of a house of ill fame, and trafficking persons for sexual servitude.
Zhu, who resides in New York, was arraigned in Lawrence District Court on Monday. The defendant pleaded not guilty and was ordered held on being held on $25,000 cash bail, according to CBS News.
Police were alerted to potential trafficking activity at the location by neighbors complaints, according to the Methuen Police Chief. The department stated they undertook a “lengthy investigation,” including surveillance and undercover operations, before obtaining a search warrant Thursday.
At the spa, police allegedly found living quarters for two women in the commercially-zone building’s basement, the department said, leading the city to close the business for zoning violations Thursday. The search “located numerous computers, phones and business records that were used in their ongoing investigation,” police alleged.
After interviewing two employees at the spa, Methuen Police issued an arrest warrant for Zhu, the department said.
The additional spas were ordered closed Tuesday after inspectors found “unlicensed activity, evidence of unlawful habitation within the commercial spaces, and multiple code violations including unpermitted construction, blocked egress, and unsanitary conditions” at the facilities.
The cases have been referred to the Methuen Police Department for criminal investigation, the city said Tuesday.
Beauregard commended the inspectors and investigators, along with the residents and small business owners whose reports he said were “proven critical to the ongoing investigations.”
“The progress of the past week should send an unmistakable signal,” Beauregard said. “If you are operating, enabling, or fueling human trafficking in the City of Methuen — whether as a trafficker, a landlord, or a john — we will find you, and we will shut you down.”
City officials said more information will be released as it becomes available.
Zhu is scheduled to return to court Oct. 24.