S. Toledo massage parlor under investigation

Prostitution alleged in FBI document

According to an FBI affidavit, a worker was alleged to have offered to perform a sex act at Top Relax Massage at 1855 S. Reynolds Rd.

Federal agents are investigating the owner of three Ohio massage parlors for any role she may have in organized prostitution and staffing the businesses with illegal immigrants who might be working against their will, according to court records.

A confidential informant working with the FBI said Ya Wen “Nancy” Xing, the owner of Top Relax Massage at 1855 S. Reynolds Rd. and two other massage parlors in Cleveland and Findlay is a “leader in prostitution and human trafficking” in northern Ohio, according to an FBI affidavit.

On Wednesday, agents with the Organized Crime Task Force executed a search warrant at the business in Diamond Plaza in South Toledo owned by Ms. Xing and her other massage parlors in Findlay and Cleveland.

No arrests were made during the searches, in which agents looked for visas, passports, travel documents, employee and payroll information, and financial records.

According to the affidavit used to establish the probable cause for the search warrants, workers at the three businesses are harboring “illegal [immigrants] and are engaged in prostitution, possibly against their wills.”

Ms. Xing, 47, lives in a condominium on Brownstone Boulevard in South Toledo, within a half-mile of the Top Relax Massage on Reynolds. She could not be reached for comment.

The investigation began in 2012 after the informant went to agents with information about prostitution and human trafficking in the massage parlors and accusations the activity was part of an “Asian Organized Crime Enterprise,” documents said.

In July, FBI agents sent a second confidential informant to the Cleveland parlor, where a worker offered to perform sex acts in a massage room, the documents said.

The following month, the informant returned to the same business and patronized the massage parlors in Toledo and Findlay, and was offered sexual services in all three locations, the documents said.

According to the affidavit, the investigation into the suspected sex ring also included surveillance of all three massage parlors that showed female workers living a short distance, typically a block away, from each location and that the women worked up to 13 hours a day.

The agents believe Ms. Xing is harboring the suspected illegal immigrants, in part, because she pays the utilities at the massage parlors and the homes where the workers live, the document said.

Vicki Anderson, FBI spokesman, said the investigation is continuing, and she could not comment.

Contact Mark Reiter at: markreiter@theblade.com or 419-724-6199.