Illicit massage parlors need greater scrutiny from Dallas and Texas (2024)

In August 2020, Dallas police got a tip that Luxury Spa on Harry Hines Boulevard was a front for prostitution. The investigation began soon after, with police painstakingly obtaining dozens of search warrants and subpoenas for suspects’ bank and cellphone records, setting up surveillance and sending detectives to tail employees, rifle through trash bags and enter the business undercover.

The detective work spanned eight months, and it was productive. Police tied Luxury Spa players to existing investigations involving five other illicit massage businesses, according to an arrest warrant. Records show the suspected owner of the business has a previous arrest in Austin on charges of engaging in organized crime. Officers said they watched drivers drop off and pick up female workers during the day and that they retrieved condoms, lingerie and tissues from the spa’s trash bags. Undercover cops said they were propositioned for sex by women calling themselves “Julie,” “Sophia” and “Bebe.”

A sting targeting Luxury Spa last June netted seven arrests, including the alleged owner, two managers and transportation workers. All were charged with engaging in organized crime for promoting prostitution, and their cases are pending in Dallas County courts. The sex workers were not targeted and were offered services through a nonprofit, police said. One woman accepted the help.

The police investigation revealed that Luxury Spa was presenting itself as a foot reflexology business. Reflexologists apply pressure to hands and feet, but they are not allowed to touch any other part of the body. While massage therapy is regulated by the state, reflexology is not.

That’s a serious problem, and one we want to call attention to here.

Dallas police call reflexology a loophole in state law that is being exploited by unscrupulous people. The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, or TDLR, is required to inspect massage establishments at least once every two years, but reflexology businesses escape state oversight unless someone complains that such a business is actually performing massages or pretending to do so.

This means that police investigations into illicit spas often start with a complaint from Dallas residents or business owners who’ve spotted suspicious activity, such as a constant stream of male customers.

This month, a Dallas City Council committee learned about police efforts to crack down on these businesses. Police officials are still developing policy recommendations, and they’re looking at Houston as a potential model. The city changed an ordinance in 2015 to make it easier for police officers to inspect potentially illegal massage parlors.

We urge the council to dive into this issue and study the proposals that come forward. Illicit massage parlors frequently tie into sex and labor trafficking networks. This is a problem that demands the attention of local and state government leaders.

“From California and New York, women will often pass through other hub regions before being moved along networks,” reads a 2018 report by Polaris, a nonprofit that fights human trafficking. Dallas is one of the country’s most prominent hubs, according to the report.

Police did not file any trafficking charges in the Luxury Spa case, but officials said workers in the sex industry are often mistreated in some way. Detective Frank Carcone, the lead investigator, told us in an interview last year that most of the sex workers at Luxury Spa were from other countries. While some women willingly work at these “spas,” that may not have always been the case, he said.

“When they first came over they didn’t have it as good as they had it at Luxury Spa,” he said. “They might have been the less fortunate ones that were sleeping on the floor, sleeping on a mattress, doing it for $40.”

In March 2021, days after the fatal spa shootings in Atlanta, police said a homeless man was harassing employees as they arrived at Luxury Spa. A detective doing surveillance called for help. Carcone said the man banged on a car and then on the spa entrance, and that this went on for 10 minutes, with no 911 calls from the spa.

The incident raised questions for police about what other abusive or violent behavior might go unreported at illegal spas. Carcone recalled a police interview with a Luxury Spa employee.

“I asked her — she had been doing this for a long time — have you ever had bad experiences? Have you ever had a guy force himself on you? She immediately dropped eye contact and said, ‘No, no, that’s never happened.’ We know that that’s not true,” Carcone said.

Dallas police said they work closely with state regulators at TDLR, who have the power to revoke massage licenses. In addition to a team of field inspectors, the state agency also has an anti-trafficking unit that began in January 2020. Although the pandemic complicated its work, in a year and half the anti-trafficking unit launched 129 investigations and closed 24 businesses, all of which resulted in seven arrests, according to the state regulators.

Some illicit spas have workers who are actually massage therapists and licensed by the state. That was the case at Sense Spa, another business in the Harry Hines Boulevard corridor that Dallas police busted in the summer for alleged prostitution. A massage therapist’s license was visible on a wall in the lobby.

Dallas has long had an ordinance on its books that states massage businesses must register to get a license from the city, but the city attorney’s office has told Dallas police that such a requirement is not allowed under state law. The ordinance in Houston allows a team of police officers who also work in code compliance to inspect businesses that advertise massage services, regardless of whether they are licensed by the state. It’s unclear if this includes reflexology businesses. Officers must obtain the owner’s permission or get a warrant.

In its report, Polaris highlighted Houston as a city that has effectively used code enforcement to shut down illicit massage businesses. We hope Dallas takes a look to see if a similar approach would work here. State lawmakers should also study how they can close loopholes in Texas’ regulation framework while respecting spas that operate lawfully. A city that successfully discourages illicit spas will likely push them into communities with weaker enforcement. The state should set a strong baseline.

In the meantime, Dallas police ask residents to continue flagging suspicious activity.

“We want the public to know, we want them to be informed, because we can’t do it without them,” said Lt. Lisette Rivera, who leads the Dallas police vice unit. “We can’t be everywhere. They’re our eyes.”