Yang Jiang, 63, allegedly ran the spa in Rockville, Montgomery County, on the 14800 block of Physicians Lane.
Police launched an investigation after discovering advertisements for “scantily clad Asian women in lingerie oknown to solicit prostitution.”
Male clients were allegedly seen entering and exiting the spa.
A search warrant was obtained on December 28 and executed on January 4.
According to one sex trafficking victim, Jiang hired her to provide massage services and told her she could make more money by offering sexual services. More people are thought to have been victimized.
Jiang was arrested on prostitution charges on January 4 and is also charged with sex trafficking.
Jiang’s arrest, according to Montgomery Police Chief Marcus Jones, is the county’s third in recent months involving an illegal spa and human trafficking.
This highlights the real and growing threat of human trafficking in the region. Human trafficking victims are not always forced into trafficking through brute, physical means. Victims are frequently coerced into being trafficked over time by their traffickers’ deliberate, psychological tactics, so the signs of trafficking are not always obvious.
Another Rockville massage parlor with an all-female, Chinese immigrant staff was discovered to have provided sexual services in 2019.
Emily Zhang Lawrence, the owner, pleaded guilty the following year to operating a “house of prostitution.”
