2000-2004 Archived Reports

[Sam007]

There is a SW in the Old North End, hangs the corner of N. Winooski and North. About 18-19, goes by the name Christine. Definitely hooked on something but worth a shot.

EDITOR's NOTE: Posting of this report was delayed pending revisions to add standard capitalization throughout the text. To avoid delays in future reports, please refrain from using the "chat room" style of writing with no capital lettering. Thanks!

[My Alias]

Not only does Vermont have one of the least-active forums of any state on this board, but your AMPs are being raided. http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/n...stitution.html. I hope action picks up for you guys. Looks as if you can use some more action.

[Jim Neighbors]

Wow, you guys got managed to get some national attention up there. This is from today's Associated Press articles:

Experts: Vt. Sex Slavery Fits U.S. Pattern

By WILSON RING, Associated Press Writer

ESSEX JUNCTION, Vt. - The regulars at the Park Place Tavern weren't surprised when police raided what is being described as an Asian brothel in a small house across their shared driveway. But they were surprised when news reports linked the now-closed Tokyo Spa and two other health clubs in the area to what police say is an international prostitution ring that smuggled Asian women into the United States and made them sex slaves.

"We joked about it here all the time," said Sandy Maloney, who lives in an apartment complex out back.

Maloney said she watched as older men driving expensive out-of-state sport utility vehicles visited the Tokyo Spa at all hours.

Experts in sexual slavery say the Vermont case fits the pattern of a problem that is reaching into the smallest corners of the country.

"Modern-day slavery is the fastest growing criminal industry in the world," said Derek Ellerman, co-executive director of the Washington-based Polaris Project, a grass-roots anti-trafficking organization.

"They have done a very good job of spreading into suburban and even rural areas," Ellerman said. "It's a market-driven criminal industry. Wherever there is demand for commercial sex the traffickers will spread to those areas."

There's an eviction notice on the door of the light gray two-story clapboard house that operated as the Tokyo Spa for about a year. The city of Burlington is moving to evict the tenants from another of the spas. At the third, the building owner insists all the activity inside was legal.

Police, though, contend the clubs were offering sexual services along with massages. During the raids earlier this month, authorities arrested eight women — five Korean and three Chinese — on federal immigration charges. All except two have been released, said Essex police Lt. Gary L. Taylor. No state criminal charges have been filed.

Taylor refused to discuss the ongoing investigation but knew of no other organized prostitution in Vermont's history.

"It's the first time I am aware of," Taylor said.

In court documents, police say the women who worked at the spas never left. Even groceries were brought to the house.

One Korean woman told investigators she had been smuggled into the United States and had only recently arrived at the Tokyo Spa.

Court documents filed by police to get search warrants for the three businesses outline what authorities say could be a link to international organized crime and sexual slavery. Similar operations, according to the papers, are being investigated by federal authorities in New York City, New Jersey and Maine.

"The way these massage parlors or spas or health clubs work, they are really fronts for prostitution," said Linda M. Hughes of the University of Rhode Island.

Hughes, who has studied international sex trafficking for 15 years, said many of the women have been smuggled into the United States and are being held "by some sort of forced fraud or coercion."

Typically, sex rings offer to bring women into the United States for a fee. Once in the United States, the women are forced to repay the cost of their passage by working as prostitutes.

The women will give most of the money they make to the brothel owner. They are charged for rent and expenses. They can be fined for rule infractions, Hughes said.

"There are all sorts of things they do to prevent these women from getting out," Hughes said. "That may mean these women have been enslaved for 20 years."

The women are then rotated between the brothels as part of a network that has, in some cases, operated nationwide.

Asian women aren't the only ones enslaved. The Vermont case appears to be a Korean network, Ellerman said. And traffickers bring women to the United States from around the world.

Law enforcement has a new tool for fighting the international trafficking. The federal Victims of Trafficking and Violence Prevention Act of 2000 defines women who were forced into prostitution as victims rather than criminals, Hughes said. The statute also offers a range of social benefits and services, including a visa to stay in the United States, for victims who agree to cooperate with the authorities.

Ellerman said the effort to get the public to recognize sexual slavery as a problem is still in its infancy.

"It's much like domestic violence was 30 years ago. It took years to mainstream," Ellerman said. "We're at that beginning stage right now.

[Dane]

Hey guys,

I've got a trip planned to Burlington in Oct. Seeing as how all the MP have been busted, Can anyone give me any leads on a good, affordable escort provider?

Thanks,

[Jim Neighbors]

The well-traveled Fluffy One has come to the VT board with the usual display of wisdom. Hey Fluffy!

I do wonder often what the deal is with the girls at these places. I can see it falling either way, where they're just trying to make a buck with the freedom to choose to make that buck in an AMP or where they're stuck in this situation by debt and basically become indentured. If I had to guess, I would bet that if the latter is true, it's a lot more true in the FS places than the simple HR places. Anyone can chime in here and agree or disagree with me.

Saying that, I've only been to Gza, so I wonder if the other two are FS (Gza is/was just HR). And maybe they've changed policies since the bust. I just hope that nothing written here had anything to do with it.

Be safe,

Jim

[Kmart]

I hear that the orchid and ginzaz are OPEN again I saw ad in seven days. Hope that L E lays off. Why is it a problem anyway? They can't tax it is the answer.

[Yello Tail]

Sorry to hear of your troubles. Seems like these crackdowns are happening all over. The following is an interesting article from the Phillyburbs.com Feb 2004.

Local communities look for new ways to battle sex trade

The Intelligencer

To paraphrase humorist Woody Allen, sex without love is an empty gesture, but as empty gestures go, it's one of the best.
Judging from recent headlines, that empty gesture in one of its forms is more prevalent around these parts than one might have guessed, and it isn't very humorous.

A story in Sunday's edition related the efforts of some Montgomery County communities to crack down on former and current massage parlors that police say fronted for houses of prostitution. Police raids have resulted in a number of arrests and turned up large amounts of cash.

Interestingly, a recent story in The New York Times Magazine presented a glimpse into the brutal world of the international trafficking of sex slaves. It told how thousands of young women and girls, some of them mere children, are smuggled into the United States illegally to labor as prostitutes in cities from coast to coast. They come from Russia, Eastern Europe, Asia and Mexico, lured by promises of jobs as nannies or models. Instead they find themselves trapped in a nightmarish existence from which there's no escape.
The women who were most recently arrested on prostitution-related charges at massage parlors in Hatfield and Hatboro were mainly Koreans who were living here legally. Ranging in age from 31 to 50, they were far from being children.

While it wasn't determined that they were slaves, a police detective said: "These girls come over from overseas, and maybe they are promised jobs. What they get is like involuntary servitude where they have nothing to do but work at these places."

Local law enforcement confirmed that women who work at massage parlors tend to move around a lot. Some who have been arrested locally have come from as far away as Colorado.

Over the years there have been investigations into Korean-run prostitution rings and massage parlors in Colorado, Ohio, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland and California.

A 1989 report by the State of New Jersey Commission of Investigation indicated that most information on Korean organized crime at that time involved prostitution. "... there is evidence of an organized Korean female prostitution network operating out of massage parlors and bars in the Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, Camden and New York areas," the 1989 report said.

A reason that the business seems to be dominated by Koreans might be due, at least in part, to the large presence of U.S. servicemen in South Korea.

There has been evidence in New Jersey and elsewhere that Korean prostitutes have obtained entry visas to the United States by marrying American GIs. The marriages are a sham, with the servicemen being paid as much as $10,000 to be temporary husbands. Once here, the women obtain a divorce and are placed in jobs at various Korean massage parlors and bars throughout the country.

Some of the massage parlors around here have been open under various names for 10 or more years. Obviously they're here because they're profitable. It's a matter of supply and demand, and apparently there exists a sufficient demand here for what often is called the world's oldest profession. There's something troubling about that.
You might consider prostitution a victimless crime, but you don't have to be prudish to recognize that its presence in a community isn't something likely to be touted by the local chamber of commerce.
It's more than a little sleazy, and you can't blame these suburban towns for wanting to get rid of it. Often, though, it's a task that is easier said than done.

Hi,

This is just a suggestion, so please don't take it the wrong way.

I appreciate the details in your report, but I know from experience that a lot of people find it easier to read a report if the paragraphs are separated by a single blank line.

I know how this happens: You're banging away at the keyboard, putting your thoughts into the report as fast as you can write them. However, if you could hit the return key TWICE at the end of each paragraph, your report would be much easier to read, which would certainly be appreciated by your fellow Forum Members.

Thanks,

Jackson

[Chowderhead]

Tokyo Spa's (in Essex) still closed - looks like they took the sign down with a chainsaw. Haven't been by Ginza.

[Jim Neighbors]

Also the guy who came up with the idea of "supply and demand." That's what I was referring to (but nice quote!).

Any of those other places reopen yet?

JN

[Chowderhead]

"Virtue is more to be feared than vice, because its excesses are not subject to the regulation of conscience."

That Adam Smith, I assume?

[Chowderhead]

Adam Smith?

[Jim Neighbors]

Adam Smith strikes again.

JN

[Chowderhead]

And White Orchid appears to be back open today. Go figure.

[Kmart]

I "JUST MISSED" the "raid" To bad they wanna close these places down. Whats next?? All the bars and hotels?

[Jim Neighbors]

That's horrible news. Ginza was a pretty upright place-clean and a real massage to boot. It didn't really have any neighbors, either, and I can't see how it would impact the area negatively.

You regular VT mongers now have a duty to keep us posted on if and where these places reopen.

Good luck,

Jim