A massage parlor in Orcutt offered more than massages, according to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office.
On Dec. 22, following a months-long investigation, detectives with the Sheriff’s Office Special Investigations Bureau arrested 38-year-old Jinfreng Xu and 43-year-old Yaqing Yu with the Relax Station Spa on suspicion of prostitution.
According to Kelly Hoover, the Sheriff’s Office public information officer, police received anonymous information that employees at Relax Station Spa were engaged in prostitution.
The spa appeared to be a normal massage parlor until investigators discovered that its “services” were being advertised on backpage.com, an online classifieds website often used for prostitution.
That’s when police went undercover and discovered more evidence showing Relax Station Spa was involved in prostitution, Hoover said.
A search warrant served by the Sheriff’s Office, as well as an investigation by an agent with the Department of Homeland Security, found more evidence that seemed to point to the spa as a place for prostitution.
Yu and Xu are Chinese nationals whose addresses were listed in the Los Angeles County area and had been in Orcutt for a short time. The business had been in operation for about a year, Hoover said. They were both booked into Santa Barbara County Jail on suspicion of prostitution.
The investigation is continuing to determine whether human trafficking was involved, Hoover said, adding that illicit massage businesses often use people who are being abused or forced to do sexual acts against their will in order to pay debts. News stations in other U.S. cities have reported several such instances.
This article appears in Dec 29, 2016 – Jan 5, 2017.