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Winston-Salem city leaders are updating the city’s code to crack down on illegal massage parlors — places that offer sexual services while operating behind a facade, often claiming to be a legitimate business or operating out of a home or hotel.
Meanwhile, many illegal saloons still operate prominently in the city and beyond. And the industry reaps billions of dollars each year with thousands of these businesses scattered across the country.
During the Oct. 14 City Council Public Safety Committee meeting, Detective Susan Warner of the Winston-Salem Police Department, who specializes in human trafficking investigations, explained a proposed city law that would require massage businesses to apply for permits, undergo background checks, provide lists of all employees providing massage, list other massage establishments owned or operated by the applicants, and provide descriptions of any other businesses controlled by the applicants that will be operated in same or adjacent premises.
Additionally, all massage therapists in North Carolina must be licensed by the North Carolina Board of Massage and Body Therapy in order to legally practice.
“We’re going to work very closely with the state to make sure that the people hired by a massage parlor are actually the people who are certified to do the job,” Warner said.
Council members had a number of questions, but South Ward Councilman John Larson expressed concern about the word “moral” used in the language of the ordinance, which states that the city “recognizes that the improper practice of massage and body therapy is potentially harmful for public. To protect the public health, safety, welfare, and morals, the regulations and provisions of this chapter are enacted for the privilege of carrying on a business, trade, or profession in which massage or other physical manipulation of the human body is performed or practiced. “
“Are we in the business of dictating morality?” he asked.
After some back and forth, Southeast Ward Councilman James Taylor, Jr. asked City Attorney Angela Carmon, “How time-sensitive is this issue?”
“We can certainly keep it in committee for another month,” Carmon replied.
Why do these massage parlors exist?
In addition to operating in shopping malls or other business parks, illegal massage parlors often run out of residential homes and neighborhoods. A quick search of websites offering sex services shows addresses in Winston-Salem that are associated with single-family homes.
According to research by the Polaris Project, the organization that runs the US National Human Trafficking Hotline, nearly all massage parlor trafficking victims in the United States are recent arrivals from China or South Korea, are in debt or are under extreme financial pressure. speak little to no English, have at most a high school education, and are mothers in their mid-thirties to late fifties. Very often the men who seek these services are not arrested and punished. Rather, the workers are.
Also, the laws governing business registration are almost “tailored for massage parlor traffickers to hide behind,” according to a Polaris article. Sometimes these massage parlors pose as legitimate businesses, obtain licenses, and register as LLCs.
“Neither the states nor the federal government require people who form companies to include the name of the beneficial owner of the business on registration documents. What is actually required depends on the jurisdiction. Sometimes the owner’s name is left blank. Sometimes it is filled in with the name of a registered agent or someone else who has been paid to be a face-to-face or point of contact,” the article noted.
Ben Holder, former reporter for Carolina Peacemaker and an activist who has spent decades fighting illegal massage parlors talks to TCB for his story about how Greensboro Police Department officers solicited favors from workers and arrested them after they had agreed or were in the process of doing them.
The problem, Holder argued, aside from taking advantage of someone who is likely to be sex-trafficked, is that the GPD will charge the individual worker with a crime rather than holding the person “running” the “business” accountable.
GPD updated its policies for investigating illegal massage parlors shortly after this was discovered. Their directives now state that “no undercover officer shall knowingly touch the genital area of a suspect or allow his genital area to be touched by a suspect.” The updated GPD directives are in full here.
Holder argued that law enforcement should simply go to these businesses and ask for their licenses. If they don’t have them, they could just shut them down that way — instead of asking for the service. That’s what the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office in Goldsboro did in August, charging two people at DT Spa with operating a massage parlor without a license.
And while Holder has concerns about the way the GPD conducts its investigations, what about the WSPD? In September 2023, a WSPD police officer arrested a now 61-year-old massage parlor employee who “unlawfully and willfully offered sexual intercourse as defined in GS 14-27.1 Manual masturbation, vaginal intercourse for the purpose of sexual arousal or gratification and for money,” according to court documents.
TCB reached out to WSPD Public Information Officer Annie Sims about whether the department has directives for conducting these types of investigations and what they are, but she said she was “unable to answer” as it pertains to “specifics regarding tactical/operational policy’.
What does an illegal massage parlor look like?
Many of the illegal massage parlors attract customers by advertising services online. One such salon is called Rose Spa on Reynolda Road, which is listed on FindTheSeven, a website that carries the motto: “Let the imagination run wild.” Details for Rose Spa say they accept “cash only” and are located at 5545 Reynolda Road. Their prices are $50 for 30 minutes and $70 for an hour. TCB texted the phone number associated with Rose Spa and received a reply stating that there were “two new girls” and that they were open from 9 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. According to the NC Board of Massage and Bodywork Therapy, Rose Spa is not properly licensed to operate in the state.
The business is also listed on SkipTheGames, a website that regularly posts ads for parlors with ages, locations and phone numbers. The 5545 Reynolda Road location notes things like “exotic PLAY” and “sexy 36DD.”
Dozens of mentions of Rose Spa and other salons can be found in the USASexGuide online community. A stream of NSFW ads greet visitors, pop-ups litter the screen as they click from forum to forum. Users of the site refer to themselves as “traders”, giving each other advice on where to find escorts, hookups, illegal massage parlors and more. Bribery is called a “hobby” in threads that are full of service acronyms like “HJ” and “BBBJ”.
In the Winston-Salem forum you will find sellers discussing escort, massage parlors, “street[s]”, strip clubs, etc. There are hundreds of comments in the thread about massage parlors, often mentioning “AMP” or Asian massage parlors. And the services each salon or individual worker offers—like “FS,” which stands for “Full Service (Full Sex)” according to the site’s forum abbreviations page—is the “menu.”
USASexGuide user “Urinal Cake” wrote a review for Rose Spa on September 16, 2023, giving it the #1 spot in the salon rankings: “Reynolda’s Rose Spa – This place just opened, I’ve only been there once, I Just I will say that You-You gal = yum yum.”
Said a neighbor who lives nearby TCB that “only men enter and leave this place.”
“There’s no trash that’s generated from that place that I know of,” the neighbor said. “There is a box, but it never appears there. The only thing that goes to the curb is the recycling bin.”
The neighbor also said about 15 cars visit the house most days. But from Friday to Sunday, this number reaches between 20-25. The men who visit don’t hang around. They “get out of their car and go into the house,” then “get in their car and leave,” the resident said.
Several other locations exist in Winston-Salem. Homes at 3005 Burke Mill Rd. and 2522 Weymoth Rd., both near Bethel Independent Methodist Church, also appear on websites.
Another is called Aero Wellness. According to the NC Secretary of State’s online limited liability company database, it was registered as an LLC on January 25, 2023 at 173 Jonestown Road under Pencheng Xu. It took the number 3 spot on Urinal Cake’s list. It was then re-registered as an LLC called “Aero Wellness S” at the same address on July 19, 2023 under Cai Yanqun.
The status of the annual report of the two LLCs? Delinquent.
On December 23, 2023, user “Rem1985” posted on USASexGuide: “Owner of Aero was arrested on the 15th for promotion. P2 C has information. A sign on the door says closed.
The Winston-Salem Police Incident Search Tool shows a Dec. 15 arrest of Cai Yanqun. Court records state that Cai Yanqun was “charged with promoting prostitution for maintaining a place of prostitution, controlling that place and providing shelter for the practice of prostitution.” Pencheng Xu formed a new LLC on August 9; this one is called Inner Peace Spa and is located at 6805 Gray Moss Ct. in Clemons.
In a thread about recent massage parlor closings, user “EugeneSeeking” complained on September 25, 2023 that law enforcement should “fire the hardworking women. AMPs provide a much-needed outlet for men.” As reported in TCB piece from January, often the women working in these salons are forced or trapped there due to debt or fear of deportation.
“The people who do the work get the short end of the stick,” Holder said, adding that the people who run these businesses are “hidden behind so many layers that they will never be caught.” Women are “totally insignificant to all involved.”
The neighbor near the Rose Spa added that a woman once mistook their home for the salon, knocked on the door and said she was looking for “the lady next door” her husband was seeing.
They also mentioned another incident. When police arrived at another neighbor’s house, which had been broken into, “all of a sudden, all the cars disappeared, and by the time the cops were here, not a single car showed up.” After the police left, after 20 minutes cars started showing up again.
“That tells you all you need to know: whatever is going on there is illegal as shit,” the resident said.
They say they didn’t say anything about the house to the police because there wasn’t much evidence to support their suspicions.
“It just sounds like a paranoid bucket of crap coming out of my mouth,” they said TCB. “The yard gets mowed, the place stays clean, they keep to themselves.”
“I honestly don’t know what to think about it. I don’t like it but….what do you say? How will you get rid of it? what are you doing
But it weighs on their minds.
“I’m awfully aware when my kids are in the yard … I’m consciously aware of what’s going on,” they said. “I’m not going to turn my back on what’s going on.”
If you or someone you know is a victim of human trafficking, please contact National Human Trafficking Hotline by calling 1-888-373-7888 or texting 233733. It’s confidential and open 24/7. Call 911 if you think you are in danger.