Doral shuts 2 illegal massage parlors, makes arrests

Following a six month investigation, Doral Police arrested Jennifer Xiao, owner of two massage parlors in Doral, where employees provided sexual services, authorities said Friday.

Xiao, 47, owner of New Oriental Massage and Sunshine Oriental Massage was taken into custody by police alongside Cheng Wang, 49 and Shu Fen Tang, 52, two of her employees.

Both premises raided Thursday night had illegally-built kitchens and laundries, and served as a home to several employees, said Doral Lt. Orlando Sanchez.

“The investigation arose from information we got about suspicious activities at these locations,” Sánchez told el Nuevo Herald. “In addition to prostitution, female employees were living there...Given the complexity of the case we requested support from other agencies.”

Detectives from Miami-Dade Police and the Division of Human Trafficking of Homeland Security and the Department of Health joined Doral to investigate the case, Sanchez said.

The first raid took place Thursday in New Oriental Massage, at 2600 NW 87th Ave., around 7 p.m. According to Sanchez, an undercover detective went in for a massage and was offered sexual services by Wang soon after.

Once the detective was solicited, he signaled other agents to hit another address, where four more employees were found.

Some three miles away, officers visited Xiao’s Sunshine Oriental Massage, at 4219 107th Ave. An undercover detective also received a massage and was offered sexual services by Tang, 52.

Xiao was arrested on charges of hiring unlicensed massage therapists. Wang and Tang were interviewed by Homeland Security detectives to determine if they were victims of human trafficking.

However, they later were arrested on charges of prostitution and practicing massage therapy without a license.

Doral code compliance officers shut down both locations. Sanchez said police will continue to investigate other Doral massage parlors.

“These investigations began late last year with anonymous information we received,” Sanchez said. “These first arrests help us realize a complex reality in our community, one which we can’t ignore.”

This story was originally published May 30, 2014 at 8:11 PM.