Shaoping Wen, 64, and Xu Wang, 41, ran sex massage parlors in Lubbock and eastern New Mexico with their mother. According to court records obtained on Friday, both agreed to plead guilty to federal charges.
The two people were first arrested in March. On September, EverythingLubbock.com said that the two were charged with several new crimes.
On November 7, however, Wen agreed to plead guilty to Conspiracy to Commit Interstate or Foreign Travel in Aid of Racketeering Enterprises. Wang agreed to admit that he had committed a felony.
Based on records from the federal court, there were eight parlors, with three of them being in the Lubbock area. One was in Roswell, one was in Clovis, and two were in Carlsbad.
The women never left the massage parlors
A concerned citizen told the police that they thought there might be human trafficking going on at a parlor in the Lubbock area, so they began to work undercover.
Records from court showed that the women who worked at the parlors were Chinese citizens. First they were flown into the United States to New York or California.
Then they were taken to Roswell. Court documents say that the women were taken straight from the airports to the massage parlors and rarely left the business.
A secret room in Lubbock was found to have beds on the floor and a camera system to watch the women.
People who live near one of the Lubbock parlors were worried because they thought it looked like the women lived at the business.
At least one time, someone said they heard a man grunting and a woman screaming. They went back the next day to make sure everything was okay and saw several women in lingerie.
Agents in disguise went to the parlors more than once to look around. Each time, the women offered to do sexual things for them. The women told the police that they had changed their minds and left.
When one of the Lubbock parlors was caught, Wen got the women out of jail on bond and took them back to the parlor.
Customer told police he brought cash for a ‘happy ending’
Court records show that Wang, Wen’s son, came to the U.S. from China in 2023 on a travel visa. Wang drove the women around, paid the bills, delivered groceries, and did other practical tasks to help his mother.
A customer at one of the brothels told police that he had paid for sexual services “at least once,” according to court records. Court records show that the man told police he would take out $200 cash to keep with him in case the parlor offered him a “happy ending.”
Tracking devices and money laundering
According to court records, the government put a cell phone tracking device on Wen’s car in September 2023. The tracking device helped the police figure out where each parlor was.
Federal court records say that in November, Wen was seen at a casino east of Los Angeles. According to court records, Wen bought chips worth about $1,527,410 and cashed them out for about $1,781,360 between 2018 and August 2023.
A federal complaint said that Wen was “laundering money in a casino in the most common way.”
After her plea is accepted, Wen will be given a sentence of no more than five years in prison. Wang could have gone to jail for three years. The two were still being held by the federal government on Friday.