“Rubmaps took the guessing out of it,’’ he said. He would have done it anyway, he said, but the Internet made it much easier. ![]() One sex buyer, a Boston area businessman who requested anonymity to protect his family’s privacy, described spending tens of thousands of dollars on illicit massage parlors all over the world. For example, cases of forced sex and forced labor reported to the National Human Trafficking Hotline increased by 35.7 percent in 2016 alone, ticking up to 7,572. Indeed, the internet has been a boon for human trafficking generally, allowing sellers to easily and discreetly reach buyers without attracting attention. “We know they are all over the place,’’ Gavin said. But they have to be selective because investigations can be labor intensive, she said. The New England Center’s efforts to reach alleged victims from recent busts proved unsuccessful.ĭonna Gavin, head of the human trafficking unit for the Boston Police Department, said police scrutinize review boards during investigations when they get tips about problematic addresses. After being questioned, they often leave the state. The women, many of them fearful of deportation and unable to speak English, often make reluctant and poor witnesses. But even when law enforcement moves against erotic massage parlors, conviction of alleged traffickers is no slam dunk. Healey said her office will continue to go after the massage businesses described on the review boards. State and local officials say they don’t want simply to arrest women workers - who are increasingly considered victims - but take down the business operators who often run multiple storefronts. Shutting them down is not as simple as rounding up the men and women in the massage parlor. That’s because of the sheer number of businesses and the legal resources needed to take each one down. ![]() The now-closed Hadley Massage Therapy is one of hundreds of erotic massage centers described on in Massachusetts alone - and there are some 7,000 nationwide.īut, even though law enforcement officials can easily find other suspected sex trafficking operations on and other so-called “John boards,” listings on these sites seldom lead to prosecution. “It’s terrible their depiction of women … It’s just truly appalling.” “These are reviews on victims of human trafficking,’’ said Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, whose office led the investigation into the alleged sex traffickers who ran centers in Hadley, East Longmeadow and Framingham. ![]() ![]() On a controversial website called , they described their sexual experiences in detail, including how much they paid, what services they received and their level of satisfaction with the women’s performance. The customers themselves led law enforcement to the address in 2016, by writing detailed reviews of the services they received at Hadley Massage Therapy - services that went far beyond massage. HADLEY - Prosecutors painted a squalid picture of what went on inside the little house on busy Russell Street: The Asian women were kept there night and day, providing sexual services for a fee, sleeping where they worked, and rarely venturing outside except to take out the trash. This article is part one of a five-part series titled "The Business of Illicit Massage." Parts two, three, four and five are also available online.
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