An investigator sits watch outside a strip mall. It is about a. He stays, waits and watches. Throughout the day, man after man enters the building. Besides the two who work there, no women go into the business. Police had heard about this place. And then there was the more unmistakable information.
One man said he went to the business for a massage. Yanhang Lin, the registered owner, was arrested May 10 and charged with second-degree sex trafficking and promoting prostitution. Riverwood Massage and Body Works is not the only massage business in Central Minnesota suspected of acting as a front for sex trafficking.
According to a grant proposal compiled by Stearns County officials and accepted by the Minnesota Office of Justice Programs in late December, illicit massage businesses are operating in Central Minnesota at an alarming rate. It's the next step in combating sex trafficking in Central Minnesota. In , law enforcement agencies conducted a series of stings and arrested dozens of men who were trying to purchase sex from women in hotel rooms. To men who buy sex, illicit massage businesses can be enticing alternatives to meeting trafficked women in hotels or apartments.
The businesses, because of the inherent physicality of massage, can offer a sense of plausible deniability. To women who are trafficked, it can mean a lifetime of damage. Victims have layers of trauma that make rehabilitation β including finding housing, jobs, education and safety β difficult, sometimes seemingly impossible. The problem is not isolated to the St. Cloud area. A recent study by the Polaris Project, a nonprofit organization that combats modern slavery and human trafficking, found approximately 9, illicit massage businesses operate in the United States.
Connecting men with the sex trade is as easy as knowing where to look. And sometimes, the illicit trade is happening in plain sight. There are 39 massage businesses licensed for in Waite Park and St.
