COBB COUNTY, Ga. — As state and county law enforcement continues to crack down on unlicensed massage businesses, Channel 2 Action News has obtained body camera video that shows young women describing in their own words what they’re forced to do and why police believe they are victims of human trafficking.
Investigators told Channel 2 Cobb County Bureau Chief Michele Newell that they have shut down nearly 20 health spas in Cobb County this past year.
Police have arrested numerous owners. They say one recently pleaded guilty to hiring unlicensed massage therapists.
Investigators said video recorded inside one of those businesses shows why they believe human trafficking was going on.
Police say they found a naked customer behind the closed doors of one of the massage businesses.
“That dude was naked,” one of the officers on the bodycam said.
“Really?” another officer responded.
“Yes. I think that dude was naked,” the first officer responded.
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In another room, police found a man on a bed. Police found a shower and a closet filled with clothes.
“There’s two suitcases. Clothes. Three suitcases. Bedding,” one of the officers said on bodycam describing what they found inside the room, which they say are indicators of human trafficking.
Police believe two young female employees in the massage business were trafficked from China.
“Who paid for her to come here?” a detective asked one of the women.
One woman said some customers want sex.
“Sometimes they want to solicit her for sex,” a translator told the detective.
Someone from the Georgia Attorney General’s Office offered help to both women.
Police and the county business license division shut the business down. The owner was charged with hiring unlicensed massage therapists.
“She has to have a state license, like you do, and she doesn’t and yet you allowed her to massage anyway. That’s against the law. That’s why you’re going to jail,” the officer told the owner.
Both women declined help from the AG’s office in the body camera video.
One told police most of the money she makes goes to the owner. She admitted to accepting money for performing a sex act on customers.
The Cobb County Police Department and the county business license division rewrote the health spa ordinance to further crack down on these places.
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