Search warrants served at 3 Wenatchee Valley massage parlors in trafficking investigation

Authorities served search warrants Wednesday afternoon at three massage parlors in Wenatchee and East Wenatchee as part of an anti-human trafficking investigation into alleged prostitution activity.

Detectives with the Chelan County Sheriff's Office uncovered evidence during an ongoing investigation indicating acts of prostitution at Foya Massage, 827 N. Miller St., and Lomi Lomi Massage, 212 S. Mission St., in Wenatchee and Zen Massage, 858 Valley Valley Mall Parkway in East Wenatchee, according to a news release from the East Wenatchee Police Department.

According to the Washington Secretary of State's office, the owner of Foya Massage is Benjamin Yu. The owners of the other two businesses could not be easily identified.

Mary Reed, manager of Cannabis Provisions East, a neighboring shop at 831 N. Miller St., said employees had noticed suspicious activity at Foya Massage for more than a year.

"It was pretty obvious from the moment they opened what was going on over there," Reed said. "There was just some shady things going on over there."

Reed said employees witnessed vans dropping off and exchanging women at the business and reported concerns about employee safety because of the activity around the business.

"I was more concerned with our employees' safety after 10 p.m. at night going out to their cars," she said.

Teresa Moran Cope, another witness of the activity at Foya Massage, said she has been tracking and reporting suspicious activity to police with the help of a friend for two years. Like Reed, she said she noticed the vans arriving late at night.

"Every time, I chronicled everything and did my due diligence," she said.

Search warrants were served at each location, and the cases are also being referred to code enforcement for additional action, according to the release.

The three businesses have closed, and Sheriff's Chief of Operations Ryan Moody said their "ability to reopen will be determined by the cities."

Sheriff Mike Morrison added that his office started looking into the businesses after tips from the community.

"Anytime that we get those kinds of reports, we look into it quickly, and we do everything we can to shut them down promptly," he said. "...We're not going to tolerate it, and we plan on identifying them, following up on signs, targeting them, and exploiting their networks that try to take advantage of vulnerable people."

The sheriff's office is receiving assistance from the Wenatchee Police Department, East Wenatchee Police Department, Homeland Security Investigations and Sage Advocacy Center.

The release said the operation was not linked to immigration enforcement.

More information will be released when appropriate, out of respect for the victims and the "integrity" of the investigation, according to the release.

Reporter Jordan Gonzalez contributed to this report.

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