Sex Slavery Prompts Local Leaders to Draft Massage Parlor Law

This week Gov. Jerry Brown signed a new law designed to stop massage parlors from acting as fronts for the sex-slave industry.

Drafted by Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas and State Sen. Lou Correa (Orange County), the law makes it a misdemeanor to issue a massage certificate or diploma to anyone who hasn’t completed the training required by city codes or by the California Massage Therapy Council.

There are six massage establishments in Laguna Niguel that are approved and registered businesses, according to Dan Fox, community development director.

"This law gives law enforcement the tools to go after human trafficking at its inception. Human traffickers need these phony diplomas to place women in illegitimate massage parlors that are really brothels,” Rackauckas said in a written statement. “I will be working closely with other law enforcement agencies and the California Massage Therapy Council to identify and shut down these diploma mills that are fronts for human traffickers.”

However, sex slavery has been a problem in Orange County as well as the rest of the nation, said Farrah Emami, spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office.

“Human trafficking happens not just in other parts of the world,” Emami said. “It happens in the U.S. It happens here in Orange County.”

In Orange County, authorities have raided brothels masquerading as massage parlors and acupuncture clinics. Emami conceded that human trafficking can be much harder to prove than pimping and prostitution. Often the victims are vulnerable because they may have limited English-speaking skills, they may have a fear of law enforcement or they may be financially indebted to their traffickers.

“These women are being forced into sex slavery or some sort of servitude, and they don’t have the resources to get out,” said Emami.

In one of the county’s largest pimping conspiracy cases from 2007, several law enforcement agencies raided 10 brothels operating as massage parlors and acupuncture clinics in five cities and arrested six alleged pimps.

According to the Orange County district attorney’s office, the pimps were using Chinese nationals as prostitutes and placing advertisements in the Orange County Register and OC Weekly for “beautiful girls” and “young Chinese ladies.” According to investigators, one of the prostitution ring’s leaders purchased approximately 7,500 square feet of Kirkland plastic food wrap and 12 24.5-ounce bottles of Vaseline lotion to be used in place of condoms and lubricant. During the raid, investigators found no evidence that the businesses were offering legitimate massage or acupuncture services, they said.

With the new law slated to take effect in January, “it’s going to make it harder for them to start these kinds of operations,” said Emami.

In addition to the new law, cities around the state have worked to streamline certification and background checks for the massage business.

-- contributed to this report.