Sheriff’s massage sting raises questions - Osceola News Gazette

[mnews]

A recent undercover sting at four Osceola County massage businesses led to the arrest of four women on prostitution charges — but experts say details surrounding the operation raise troubling questions about how agents conducted the investigation and whether the suspects were victims of human trafficking.

According to sheriff’s reports, the Osceola County Sheriff’s Narcotics Enforcement Team and the Osceola Narcotics Investigative Bureau conducted the sting on April 8 using undercover agents posing as massage customers. Investigators targeted three locations in Kissimmee and one in St. Cloud. The Osceola News-Gazette is withholding the business names for now pending attempts to contact owner/managers for comment through an interpreter.

The agents, who wore body cameras, reportedly paid $60 for massages and were then offered sexual services for an additional $60 to $100. Reports stated that agents undressed during at least three of the stings, and in one case, an agent’s genitals were touched twice before he gave a pre-arranged takedown signal to arrest the masseuse, said reports.

Human trafficking ‘red flags’ evident
The sting came just weeks before Sheriff Marcos Lopez is set to host his department’s third Annual Human Trafficking & Drug Abuse Awareness Conference — an event focused on helping others recognize the signs of exploitation. But some experts argue the operation itself seems to have missed such signs.

All four women arrested were Asian, aged 35 to 59, required a Mandarin-speaking interpreter in court and had no local addresses. Two were from Flushing, N.Y.; one was from California and one from Naples, Fla. One woman said she had only arrived in the state a week earlier. Each was released on $500 cash bond and indicated they would hire private attorneys.

These factors all align with known indicators of human trafficking in illicit massage businesses (IMBs) — specifically the women’s language barrier, age, ethnicity and lack of local ties – according to John Nehme, CEO and founder of Allies Against Slavery, a national anti-trafficking data and policy group.

“These would be red flags for me,” Nehme said.

It remains unclear whether the women were screened as potential victims or offered trauma-informed support. Osceola County Sheriff’s Acting Public Information Officer Rich Serrano declined the News-Gazette’s request to interview Sheriff Marcos Lopez on issues surrounding the operation, citing an active investigation. A request to review body camera footage was also denied.

Answers to a follow-up list of general policy questions — regarding agent conduct during prostitution stings and how the department screens for trafficking victims — had not been provided by press time.

The Kissimmee Police Department said such stings are usually handled by the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation in Orlando. St. Cloud Police said policies are posted online, though none appeared to address vice stings and a spokesman did not reply to further inquiries.

From Flushing to Florida: A known trafficking circuit
Two of the women arrested listed addresses in Flushing, N.Y., which Nehme described as “a big, central hub for a lot of the national distribution around the massage industries here in the U.S.” He explained that women are often moved across states through organized trafficking pipelines or “circuits.”

With an estimated 1,200 IMBs operating in Florida alone, Nehme said law enforcement plays an important role in protecting communities. But he stressed the focus should be on dismantling the exploitative businesses — not charging the women working there with crimes.

“If there’s an opportunity to strategically disassemble a network of illicit massage businesses where people are being exploited…then I would think law enforcement would have an interest in shutting those down,” he said.

Nehme said sting operations involving officers posing as customers are increasingly seen as outdated, especially because they may further victimize women and are largely ineffective.

“There are creative tactics emerging that law enforcement are using as best practices to actually get at the operator of the business, the trafficker or the network node,” he said.

One approach involves working directly with property owners. Nehme said some prosecutors have contacted landlords about suspected IMBs, resulting in lease revocations and business closures.

“Landlords are very responsive to that and will often end up revoking that lease and shutting down the business.”

He said solutions start with shifting away from criminal charges and toward trauma-informed support.

“We don’t want to see survivors arrested when they’re being exploited,” Nehme said. “They’ve already suffered exploitation, let’s not further criminalize them. Let’s give them the pathways out.”

Policing the businesses, not the women
That is the approach taken by the Collier County Sheriff’s Office. Lt. Chris Williams is an expert in IMBs and helped his agency lead a recent crackdown in Collier, resulting in the shutdown of 14 businesses and the arrests of more than a dozen operators. Williams said his county’s ultimate goal is to shut down the location —not fill the jail. Although he would not comment specifically on the Osceola cases, he said his agency does not target the women engaged in sex acts at massage businesses.

“You can’t arrest your way out of this,” he said. “Our goal is victim reduction and business disruption. If you take the business down, you can eliminate 26 to 39 potential trafficking victims being cycled through that location each year.”

Williams said in addition to further exploiting the workers, these types of stings also put officers at risk of unwanted sexual contact.

“A lot of deputies become victims of sexual battery. Sometimes [undercover stings] are necessary. So I'm not saying they should be prohibited. I just don't think it's necessary, in most cases, because we can get the evidence other ways.”

Williams said his agency builds cases using other methods and seeks cooperation with landlords who have the power to revoke the leases of suspected IMBs.

"Most of the landlords are reputable businesspeople. They don't want human trafficking or prostitution happening in their locations."

As of this week, all four massage businesses targeted appeared to still be in operation. State records show that two have expired licenses. Three are listed on Rubmaps.com — a site used by buyers to rate erotic massage services – and one is listed under a previous name. Yelp reviews also allude to sexual activity at one. Nehme said digital trails like these can be used to investigate and target operators more effectively.

“Believe it or not, people leave reviews — after going to get massages — on various sexually-oriented websites. Buyers will actually leave a review about their experience…and those ads can leave a trail.”

Experts challenge the goals of these arrests
Dr. Amanda Knapp, a member of the executive committee of the Global Association for Human Trafficking Scholars, questioned the Osceola sheriff’s department’s priorities.

“Did they want to arrest people for prostitution or stop human trafficking in their community?” she asked. “They’re not going to stop trafficking because [traffickers] are just going to get more women.”

She added, “If they cared about the community and wanted to stop illicit crime, they would go after the business.”

Knapp, who holds a Ph.D. in the subject, said the line between sex work and coercion is often blurred — and identifying a trafficking victim can be tricky.

“Being able to determine a person is engaged in prostitution but is being coerced is very slippery, and charges would really be up to law enforcement and the state attorney to speak with the victims to determine if they believe they were coerced and trafficked,” she said.

Yet in Osceola, there’s no indication such an effort was made. Even if they had tried, Knapp said trafficking victims are not likely to speak up.

“Sometimes these women are afraid of law enforcement and don’t want to talk,” Knapp said. “Look what happened to [the women arrested in Osceola]; it's cops that did this to them. Maybe in their country they didn’t trust law enforcement. Now someone’s trafficking them and law enforcement is calling them criminals.”

Knapp also emphasized that trafficking victims — like domestic violence survivors — often don’t recognize they’re even being exploited. Many are compelled to keep working.

“In most cases there’s a threat to their family in their home country or if they have children here,” she said.

Rather than being held physically, many victims are controlled through fraud, coercion and manipulation — especially the fear of arrest or deportation, Knapp said.

She added, “Training would help [law enforcement] understand that these women don’t have options and it would help more likely to see them as a victim than a criminal. Clearly no one wants to engage in these types of acts.”

Nehme, too, said it’s hard to view this activity as being consensual, especially when victims typically are doing it out of desperation or control.

“When you talk about the idea of consent, you just look at the sort of business model and the scenario and it becomes clear pretty quickly that this is not a life path or a professional path that people will choose to engage in. The women themselves are keeping little if not any funds at all.”

Help exists, but rarely accepted
The sting in Osceola took place just weeks after the Florida Sheriffs Association announced the launch of a Human Trafficking Victims Fund. The fund offers up to $10,000 per case to support victims with emergency housing, trauma recovery and medical needs. FSA says it has so far distributed $70,000 to seven agencies, but could not say by press time whether Osceola County has ever sought or received any of that funding.

Williams said the women in these situations rarely accept help.

"The kind of help they need would be a legitimate job where they can make the same amount of money. And that doesn't exist for them," Williams said.

This is the first in a News-Gazette investigation into illicit massage businesses, human trafficking and law enforcement tactics in Osceola County and across Florida. Future stories include how illicit massage businesses operate—and why they’re so hard to shut down; and what comes next in justice and reform.

If you are a victim of human trafficking or suspect trafficking activity, call the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 888-373-7888 or text 233733.