IMLAY CITY, Mich. – A husband and wife from Imlay City are accused of using Lapeer County massage parlors as fronts for a prostitution and sex trafficking operation.
Officials said they started investigating a business at 542 North Cedar Street in Imlay City in April 2022 because of an “exterior ordinance violation” on the building. A closer look at the business led to police discovering “an alarming set of facts.”
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Undercover Imlay City officers were sent inside that business and a similar business at 420 Lake Nepessing Road in Lapeer. The officers discovered the massage parlors were being used as fronts for prostitution, as well as potentially human trafficking and forced sex trafficking, according to authorities.
Four Chinese women living in Imlay City on work visas were employed as part of the operation, police said. They were given victim assistance.
“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,” a release says. “Several other women from out of town have been rotated in and out of these businesses over the course of the past year.”
Authorities believe most of the clients of the business were visiting from out of town. They would drive to Imlay City from 40-50 minutes away, according to officials.
Three search warrants were executed Aug. 3 -- one at each of the two businesses and another at a home in Imlay City. Anthony Joseph Juip, 72, and Qing Feng Xu, 58, both of Imlay City, were taken into custody, police said.
Juip and Xu were charged as a husband-and-wife duo at 71-A District Court after the five-and-a-half month investigation. They’re charged with conducting a criminal enterprise and two counts of keeping a house of prostitution.
The criminal enterprise charge is a 20-year felony and each keeping a house of prostitution charge is a five-year felony.
Juip and Xu are scheduled to return to court Sept. 26.
Michigan State Police troopers, Lapeer County deputies, and officials from Homeland Security and the FBI were involved in this case.
The investigation is ongoing.
Police are asking any women who had contact with these businesses and were turned away or denied service to call 810-724-2345.
