NORTHAMPTON — Four individuals accused of running two unrelated sex trafficking rings that allegedly used massage parlors as fronts were indicted on multiple charges by a grand jury Wednesday.
In December, authorities broke up two alleged human trafficking operations with ties to Northampton and Hadley, among other Valley locations, after a roughly eight-month investigation.
The probe — spearheaded by the Northampton Police Department and Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office — netted four arrests and identified 10 victims.
The victims are women ranging from their mid-20s to mid-50s, authorities said, and were transported from the neighborhood of Flushing in Queens, New York and trafficked for sex acts inside local massage parlors in Northampton, Hadley, Framingham, East Longmeadow and Agawam.
Three of the defendants, Shuzi Li, 52, Feng Ling Liu, 50, and Ting Ting Yin, 26, are expected to be arraigned in Hampshire Superior Court on Friday morning, according to the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office.
After a grand jury handed up the indictments Feb. 15, Liu, Song and Yin were charged with three counts each of keeping a house of ill fame, trafficking persons for sexual servitude, conspiracy to traffic persons for sexual servitude and transacting in laundered money.
The “ill fame” charge — “a house … which is resorted to for prostitution or lewdness,” according to state law — was added during grand jury proceedings.
Li was charged with two counts each of trafficking persons for sexual servitude, transacting in laundered money, deriving support from prostitution and keeping a house of ill fame.
Li previously pleaded not guilty in Northampton District Court to all counts except for the “ill fame” charges and has denied any knowledge of sexual activity in her spas.
Liu and Yin will also be arraigned in Hampden and Middlesex counties at later dates, according to the AG, while Liu’s husband, Jian Song, 48, is also expected to eventually be arraigned in all three courts.
Additionally, Li will also be arraigned in Hampden Superior Court at a later date, according to the AG’s office.
Assistant Massachusetts Attorney General Elizabeth Vasiliades previously said in court that Li often pocketed the bulk of the women’s earnings.
One day, Vasiliades told the judge, a $29,000 Tiffany & Company ring was delivered to Li at the shop.
The women lived in apartments in Amherst and West Springfield, as well as at inside the massage shops themselves, Vasiliades added.
The businesses believed to have served as fronts for the criminal operations consisted of Hadley Massage Therapy in Hadley, Feng Health Center in East Longmeadow, Massage Body Work in Framingham, Pine Spa in Northampton and Agawam Massage Therapy in Agawam.
The women, authorities said, provided sexual favors to male clients for cash tips.
Liu and her husband Song, 48, both of Sunderland, and Liu’s daughter, Yin, of New Hyde Park, New York, were arrested Dec. 13 in connection with trafficking women between New York and their operations in Hadley, East Longmeadow and Framingham, according to the attorney general’s office.