Seven indicted for prostitution ring

Seven people in metro Denver used massage parlors to run a sophisticated prostitution operation that netted millions of dollars to finance illegal marijuana grows, according to an indictment released Thursday by the Denver district attorney’s office. The seven individuals, indicted on 33 felony counts, are accused of “engaging in a pattern of racketeering in which the massage parlors were the nexus for running a complex pimping, prostitution, money laundering and tax evasion operation that generated millions of dollars,” the district attorney’s office said in a news release. “We believe that the defendants were hiding in plain sight as they trafficked women from China to engage in sex acts with customers of their massage businesses,” Beth McCann, Denver’s district attorney, said in a statement. The alleged offenses took place across the metro area, including Denver, Douglas, Arapahoe and Jefferson counties, according to the indictment. The organization also had property and did business in Steamboat Springs as well as California, Oklahoma and Louisiana. The seven defendants will be tried in Denver District Court: • Chen Liang Kuo, 45. • Yi Ting Mo, 42. • Manqui Xu, 57. • Le Zhang, 46. • Ying Guo, 49. • Xiong Xie, 54. • Xuelin Chen, 33. The investigation began in early 2019, when Aurora officials told the Denver DA’s office that illicit massage parlors they shut down in Aurora had possibly reopened in Denver, the district attorney’s office said. The investigation led authorities to shut down Denver Apple Spa, Tulip Spa, 21 Spa, Mojo Massage, Ocean Foot Massage and other businesses. Undercover officers negotiated deals with massage parlor employees for sexual intercourse and other sexual acts, according to the indictment. When authorities raided the apartment of an individual whose name was redacted in the indictment, they allegedly found a series of written translations from Chinese to English for the phrase “do you have a happy ending?” the court document read. In January, two women told investigators that they pay $14 a day to live inside Apple Spa, according to the indictment. “The criminal enterprise extended across the Front Range and profited off of the exploitation of vulnerable people,” Attorney General Phil Weiser said in a statement. “From our investigation, we also tracked criminal proceeds through a network of bank accounts to support the money laundering charges in the indictment. Furthermore, illegally operated grow houses diverted revenue from the state.” All but two of the traffickers have been arrested as part of this operation, Jason Dunn, the U.S. attorney for Colorado, said in the news release.