Police identify victims of human trafficking in St. Joseph County – South Bend Tribune

SOUTH BEND — After a series of raids conducted at local massage parlors Monday, investigators say they have identified as many as 12 victims of human trafficking.

Many of the women were found living in the businesses where they worked and at least some were being forced to work against their will and reported sexual abuse, St. Joseph County Sheriff Bill Redman said Tuesday afternoon.

County detectives, as well as officers from the Indiana State Police and the Indiana Department of Revenue, are also investigating the four massage parlors — which are owned by the same man — for tax fraud.

Police did not name the owner and as of Tuesday afternoon, no arrests had been made. Police have now seized over $88,000 in cash and are working to provide the women with social services.

“We know there's some obvious issues with human trafficking throughout this country and I don't think that we're immune to that here in St. [Joseph] County,” Redman said Tuesday while speaking to reporters at the Century Center.

According to police, the four businesses that were searched go by different names and don't readily appear on Internet searches. The spas have a variation of “Chinese Massage” on the exterior of the buildings.

One of the parlors is at 421 Hickory Road in South Bend. Another is at 50795 State Road 933 north of Roseland. A third is located at 12670 State Road 23 in Granger and the fourth is at 2614 South Michigan Street in South Bend.

Officers also served a search warrant at a house on Buckhorn Drive in South Bend where the owner of the spas lives, Redman said.

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The women only speak Mandarin Chinese and have been communicating with police through a translator, Redman said. So far, police have identified 12 potential victims, two of whom are actively cooperating with police.

“Often times we don't get that cooperation as victims are traumatized because of what's going on. They're traumatized by the situations they're in; so we're at least fortunate to have some cooperation to this point,” Redman said.

Redman did not say how long the investigation into the ring of massage parlors has been going on, but officials said police were first notified by concerned neighbors who said they didn't see the employees leaving the business at the end of the day.

St. Joseph County police continue to lead the investigation into the trafficking and tax fraud allegations, though Redman did not give a timeline on police activity moving forward.

In the past year, a handful of cases involving child solicitation have come to light in Michiana, though none have alleged a large-scale human trafficking operation. Redman said he's looking into forming a human trafficking task force with federal law enforcement agencies and has recently applied for a grant to help detectives investigation human and sex trafficking.

“These investigations are not quick nor easy,” Redman said. “The crimes are committed behind closed doors and people will not generally talk. Yesterday, we were fortunate to have some of the women come forward, tell investigators was was occurring behind closed doors and ask for assistance returning home.”

Email Marek Mazurek at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @marek_mazurek