In Massachusetts, Strip Mall Brothels Flourish

Day spas, like the one in Jupiter, FL, where police say New England Patriots owner Robert K. Kraft purchased sexual services, are prevalent throughout Massachusetts. From a strip mall storefront three doors down from a popular breakfast restaurant in Wilmington to a converted house across the street from a middle and elementary school in North Andover, the victim advocacy group Partners LLC estimates there are 230 such places in Massachusetts. Just nine other states have more illicit massage parlors than Massachusetts, according to estimates by Partners.

An arrest warrant is expected to be issued for Kraft, who is one of dozens of men charged following an investigation in Florida. Kraft denied the allegations through a spokesperson. But businesses similar to Orchids of Asia Day Spa and seven others in the Florida investigation are easily found in Massachusetts.

The businesses have set up shop in storefronts in the business districts of several Boston suburbs. They advertise and are reviewed on websites catering to men looking to purchase sex. Anonymous posters on those sites leave blunt descriptions of the sex acts available, as well as fees charged.

The massage parlors often rely on Chinese women who have been trafficked illegally and who are often reluctant to cooperate with police, law enforcement investigators said. In some cases, court records show evidence that the women were forced or blackmailed into performing sexual services after being lured to the U.S. from China with a promise of legitimate work. They are often not allowed to leave the storefront where they work, and they turn over all the money they earn to the operators of the massage parlors.

But despite their visible locations and a seven-year-old Massachusetts law aimed at preventing human trafficking, the massage parlors are rarely investigated. In the Florida investigation, police only got involved after a health department official noticed suitcases, clothing, hot plates and a store of food during an inspection.

Advertising In The Open

To find clients, the parlors advertise on sites with names like "Rub Maps," "Erotic Monkey" and "City X Guide." Federal authorities shut down one of the biggest advertising sites, Backpage.com, last April, but dozens of other sites have quickly stepped in to fill the void.

Ads posted on City X Guide over the weekend for massage services in Woburn showed photos of a scantily-clad Asian woman and assured potential customers "new faces." An ad for a Braintree massage service said customers could kiss and shower with the masseuse. Another said the women working there had "just arrived today," while still another promised "girlfriend feeling." Other ads were even more explicit in the types of sexual services being offered.

On Rub Maps, visitors can find street addresses, phone numbers and hours of operation for the massage parlors, as well as Yelp-like reviews left by customers that outline the types of sexual services offered and the prices paid for additional services. The site also uses a label reading "Reported as Non-Exotic" for legal spas in its search results where sexual services are not for sale.

Under its slogan "Where Fantasy Meets Reality," Rub Maps has reviews for 628 "Asian massage parlors" in Massachusetts, although the site noted that many of those are closed. The site has reviews for 22 such businesses in Waltham and 25 in Framingham. But towns as small as Kingston, Topsfield and Wayland also have massage parlors offering sexual services, according to the site.

Like the day spa Kraft is accused of patronizing, the Massachusetts massage parlors reviewed online by Patch offer half hour- and hour-long massages for fees ranging from $40 to $70. Clients, according to the reviews, can then negotiate a "tip," code for a fee for sexual services beyond the massage. Those tips can range from $40 to $100, according to the postings on Rub Maps and similar sites.

A National, Human Trafficking Network

In the Florida cases, police said women were rotated through the massage parlors every 10 to 20 days. In some cases, they had their passports taken away.

Court records from past cases in Massachusetts against massage parlor operators show it is not uncommon for women to be moved from one parlor to another, partly to keep good on the promise of "new faces" to customers but mostly to make it harder for law enforcement to convince one of the women to testify.

That's what prosecutors say a Beverly couple did to keep a full staff at a brothel they ran out of an apartment in Salem. Earlier this month, State Police arrested Woonryong Heo, 29, and Hayun Nam, 29, both of Beverly, and charged each with trafficking of persons for sexual servitude, deriving support from prostitution and money laundering.

The couple, according to prosecutors, would pick up the women at South Station in Boston after they arrived by bus from Flushing, NY and other parts of the country, then ferry them to the brothel they were running in Salem. Heo and Nam pleaded not guilty and are due back in court March 14 for a probable cause hearing.

In December, a Middlesex Superior Court judge sentenced Xiu J. Chen, 37, of Medford, to five years in prison. A jury had convicted Chen on Dec. 5 on multiple charges after a five-day trial. Before her 2013 arrest, Chen and Ronald Keplin, 62, of Woburn, ran massage parlors in Bedford, Billerica, Medford, Reading, Wilmington and Woburn.

State Police assigned to the Massachusetts Attorney General's office arrested Chen and Keplin in May 2013. Authorities say they trafficked women along the eastern seaboard and arranged for overcrowded housing where the women typically slept on mattresses on the floor, or on the massage tables at the businesses.

But building such cases is difficult. In Florida, investigators lined up Mandarin interpreters, but only one woman agreed to testify. The cases against the men, as well as women accused of trafficking Florida, is built largely on film of the men paying for and receiving sex acts from the women.

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A sign advertising a Wilmington massage parlor where anonymous posters to an online message board say they were able to pay for sexual services. Photo by Dave Copeland/Patch.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).