IMLAY CITY (WWJ) – A Lapeer County man and his wife have been have been charged with using massage parlors as a front for prostitution and sex trafficking.
Anthony Joseph Juip, 72, and his 58-year-old wife Qing Feng Xu, both of Imlay City, have been charged as a husband-and-wife prostitution duo after a five-month investigation led to their arrests in early August.
Juip and Xu were each charged with conducting a criminal enterprise – a 20-year felony; two counts of keeping a house of prostitution – a five-year felony.
Imlay City police officials say the investigation started as an investigation into a business at 542 N. Cedar Street back in April as an exterior ordinance violation.
A closer look into the licensing and legitimacy through the city ordinances led to "an alarming set of facts."
Those facts led the department to send undercover officers inside the massage parlors and discovered the parlors were a front for prostitution, potentially human trafficking, and forced sex trafficking.
Three separate search warrants were executed at that business, a home in Imlay City and at 420 Lake Nepessing in Lapeer on Aug. 3.
The Imlay City Police Department, Michigan State Police, Lapeer County Sheriff's Department, Homeland Security and the FBI all assisted in the investigation.
Officials say four Chinese women that were living in Imlay City were on work visas and employed by Juip and Xu were detained and provided immediate victim assistance, pending further investigation.
"The Imlay City Police Department has treated this investigation each step of the way as though the women involved may be possible victims of human trafficking. Several other women from out of town have been rotated in and out of these businesses over the course of the past year," officials said in a press release.
The vast majority of the clientele that were visiting these establishments were from out of town and drove to Imlay City from 40-50 minutes away to complete these acts, according to the department.
Imlay City Chief of Police Brett Selby is asking any women who have had contact with these businesses and were turned away or denied service to contact this police department 810-724-2345.
If you suspect human trafficking or forced sex trafficking in your community to contact your local police department or call 1-(888)-373-7888.
Both Juip and Xu are due back in court on Sept. 26.
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