BROADVIEW HEIGHTS, Ohio (WJW) – Video released to the FOX 8 I-Team takes you inside a raid to investigate human trafficking.
The video gives us the first look inside a raid of JR Spa, a suburban massage parlor on Broadview Road in Broadview Heights.
Earlier this month, Broadview Heights police went in with the Northeast Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force.
The video shows investigators searching in every room, and under every bed and bed sheet, even behind pictures on the wall. Detectives seized records and $7,000.
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They also questioned two suspects they found living and working there.
You see an officer with one woman, saying, “walk out this way please. Go to the front, OK?”
You also see another officer saying to a group of investigators, “let’s go. We’re going to take some photos. Let building and housing do their thing. Once all that’s done, we’ll run the K-9.”
No charges have been filed. The investigation is not finished.
A year ago, the I-Team found 11 people indicted on 38 charges accused of running a ring offering sex for sale at massage parlors.
Cuyahoga County prosecutors indicted the entire group for engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity.
Other charges include conspiracy, promoting prostitution, money laundering and tax fraud. All of the suspects are not named in all of the charges.
That case also grew out of an investigation by the Northeast Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force.
Detectives raided massage parlors in Strongsville, Middleburg Heights and Painesville Township.
They said they had evidence of women forced to carry out sex for sale even while living in the massage parlors.
From there, investigators said they rescued the sex workers, and then they followed the money.
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We’ve learned Cuyahoga County prosecutors indicted the people believed to be the organizers and not any of the woman rescued from the operation.
Investigators said at the time they had evidence the sex for sale involved up to 500 customers.
Middleburg Heights police body camera video showed people taken into custody after one raid at a massage parlor along with a washer and dryer and shelves stocked with some food.
A group called the Harriet Tubman Movement quickly got involved and began helping some of the women start new lives.
Those cases from the indictments last year are still moving through the courts.
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