Charges Filed Against Local Massage Parlors
Northern Virginia Human Trafficking Task Force initiative results in charges for business and massage license issues; no human trafficking victims found in simultaneous checks.
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An initiative by the Northern Virginia Human Trafficking Task Force has resulted in 17 charges against individuals at nearly two-dozen massage parlors in Northern Virginia.
Police and officials from local, state and federal agencies teamed up for the simultaneous inspections Wednesday afternoon and evening, according to a Fairfax County Police Department release.
The charges were primarily related to business and massage licensure issues. During the inspections, representatives from the Polaris Project, a nationwide network that works against human trafficking, were on hand to interview potential human trafficking victims. None were found.
Representatives from the Fairfax County Police Department, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Homeland Security Investigations, the Virginia State Police, the Federal Bureau of Investigations, Prince William County Police Department, Herndon Police and zoning compliance, Vienna Police and Fairfax County zoning, code compliance, regulation and licensing were all present. Fire marshall officials also participated.
Twenty-three businesses were checked, and officials tried to check 38 others. As investigations continue, officials may file more charges.
Charges were filed against individuals at the following businesses:
VIP Spa, 462 Herndon Pkwy., Herndon
Herndon Therapy, 201 Elden St., Herndon
Silver Rain, 2238 Gallows Rd., Vienna
G&G Wellness Center, 8460 Tyco Rd., Vienna
Sunrise, 6051 Arlington Blvd., Falls Church
Crown Therapy, 4605 Pinecrest Office Park Dr., Alexandria
Liberty, 4810 Beauregard St., Alexandria
Last month, Patch ran a three-part series on issues surrounding massage parlors and human trafficking in the area.
Richard Plocica
4:32 pm on Sunday, December 18, 2011
Well the article needs to list the charges since it says most are only technical licensing issues (the authorities had to find something for all their efforts) not any criminal charges and the timbre of the entire article would change saying instead of hinting at a dark criminal element we have legitimate massage therapists.
Poor reporting -
Amelie Krikorian
8:14 pm on Sunday, December 18, 2011
I agree-- it says they were looking for human trafficking and mentioned that ICE was on hand, presumably because they had some suspicion of illegal immigrants working in those places. However, it seems they found nothing to confirm any of it.
Beth Lawton
6:05 am on Monday, December 19, 2011
Yes, several agencies have been investigating potential human trafficking violations at several massage parlors in Northern Virginia for quite some time (as we looked into in our series on human trafficking that's linked to in this story), but in these instances they did not find any evidence of that. The charges were related to business and massage license issues.
Don Joy
10:30 am on Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Look at all of the high-profile law enforcement and regulatory agencies involved in this fishing expedition. They came up with nothing of what they really set out to find. It all smacks of heavy-handedness and overbearing government intrusion, bloated budgets and bureaucrats seeking to justify their own little empires. Come on. The taxpayers are the ones being forced to live as human slaves under such runaway government control freaks. Next thing you know, it will be illegal to operate a lemonade stand without a whole bunch of red tape and permits, licenses, etc--oh wait, it already is!