Owner of 'illicit' Farmington Hills massage parlors charged for human trafficking - MSN

[David Komer]

The Brief

• A Livonia woman has been arrested and charged with human trafficking out of 3 illicit massage parlors.
• Four Chinese women were rescued, that were forced to work long hours and are not fluent in English.
• Parlor locations were in Commerce Township, Farmington Hills and Westland.

FOX 2 - A human trafficking case was announced involving massage parlors in Farmington Hills, the Oakland County Prosecutor's Office said Wednesday.


Police arrested Zixuan Wan, a 44-year-old Livonia woman, who has been charged with two counts of human trafficking and one count of keeping a house of prostitution with four victims.

The four women are immigrants from China who worked at three different locations in Farmington Hills, Westland and Commerce Township, who allegedly were held as virtual prisoners, said Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald.

"The victims in this case, did not do not speak English. And that's yet another barrier to seeking help and and protection," she said.

Wan was arraigned and had her bond set at $100,000 with conditions of a GPS tether and surrender of her passport.


The backstory

The investigation began regarding an Illicit massage parlor 13 Mile and Orchard Lake Road. The other two locations were not named in the press conference.

"In interviews with Care House investigators, these women told of appalling living conditions," McDonald said. "They were forced to live inside the massage parlor, working seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. They did not have access to transportation, friends or family or medical care. They claimed they received no, or minimal payment for their work."

Farmington Hills Chief John Piggott said the investigation lasted three months with the Oakland County Sheriff's Office, special investigative unit, the Westland Police Department Special Investigation Unit.

More than $140,000 in currency was recovered from a safety deposit box connected to the suspect.

"Just to show the scope of this investigation, our investigators have identified homes, vehicles and commercial real estate that appear to have been paid for through this ongoing illicit and exploited criminal enterprise," said Piggott.

The police chief asked for the public's help identifying suspicious businesses - and notifying them.

"We would ask is residents or business owners that are operating in these areas is to report unusual business activity," he said. "In most cases, these were businesses that operate with inconsistent business hours. There's no signage on these businesses. They black out their windows, they lock their doors to conceal what is going on inside."

It is the second suspected Metro Detroit human trafficking bust in as many weeks after the announcement of a Southfield arrest recently.

On March 6, Southfield Police Chief Elvin Barren announced the arrest of Rodney Holland who was allegedly operating a human trafficking operation out of two hotels along Northwestern Highway with suspects secondary locations in Detroit, Grand Rapids, Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana.

Investigators told FOX 2 that the cases are not related.

The Source

Information for this report came from a press conference with the Oakland County Prosecutor's Office and Farmington Hills police chief.