On April 9, Tucson News Now first learned of alleged illicit activity that led to the suspension of four Tucson Police officers, plus a fifth who ultimately resigned before being terminated. A lot of people and outside agencies such as the Arizona Department of Public Safety have joined the investigation.
Friday evening, we learned even more: 14 people identified in these reports as quite possibly paying for sex at illegal massage parlors in Tucson. The latest round of documents are graphic, lewd and extremely disturbing. They speak to a four-year sting surrounding unlicensed parlors, described by city officials as a criminal enterprise investigation.
What makes this investigation a little different, however, are the people potentially involved on both ends. Not only the pimps and prostitutes who advertise their services online, oftentimes through websites such as. Many of them, these documents suggest, work for some of the most respected employers in Tucson.
That includes the U. Air Force, agents with the Border Patrol, at least two local fire departments, one pastor from a local church and an employee from a private school in Oro Valley.
Monday, TPD Chief Villasenor spoke publicly about the topic for the first time, an investigation that includes at least four of his own officers on paid leave, pending the outcome of an ongoing DPS investigation. We are paying them public servants for that. Earlier in the week, Tucson News Now talked to the lawyer of the woman accused of running unlicensed massage parlors in at least three locations.
