EXCLUSIVE: Watch massage parlor manager get arrested

House Bill 197 has changed the way massage parlors must operate and the way law enforcement can catch illegal establishments and illicit conduct. Collier County is a great example of how the new law can be a success.

On Wednesday, the Collier County Sheriff’s Office announced a massive massage parlor bust involving 10 different massage parlors and 11 people.

• RELATED: 11 arrested in Collier County massage parlor bust

On Thursday, CCSO added Xu Huiping, 55, to their list of arrests. There are now a total of 12 arrests, and WINK News exclusively caught the latest arrest on video.

CCSO Lt. Wade Williams, who has been leading the massage parlor arrests, said Huiping was a “designated establishment manager” at Phoenix Spa and has been on their radar for a long time.

The legal name of the establishment is Phoenix Spa, but they were doing business as Asian Angels.

Her salon did not pass inspection. Williams said it was because customers would give fake names, and the salon would not ask for their IDs to verify their true identities.

House Bill 197 aided in the entirety of the massage parlor bust.

“House Bill 197 strengthens areas of law to provide law enforcement and the Department of Health with more resources and power to engage and attack those illicit businesses where they operate differently from legitimate businesses,” Williams said in a CCSO Facebook video.

• Watch the full video here

Huiping operated the massage parlor for seven years, which operated 24/7, according to her next-door neighbor, Eden Cantrell, who owns Hairlogic.

“All my clients call it the ‘brothel.’ Everybody does; that’s what they’re known as,” Cantrell said. “I’ve had clients that as I’m coming in the door, they’re like, ‘Two guys went in the brothel at 8:30 this morning.’ I leave here [Hairlogic] sometimes 9 o’clock at night, and they’re in and out of there. There’s people coming in all hours, so it’s interesting.”

When she saw the bust on Tuesday, she felt relieved.

“The johns were sitting in our parking lot. They were shut down on Tuesday,” Cantrell said. “All day yesterday, our parking lot was filled with them wondering why they couldn’t go in.”

She created a sign to let them know their massage parlor was closed, due to the fact that massage therapists were in jail.

A new Florida law, House Bill 197, helped make these numerous arrests possible. It’s another way for law enforcement to crack down on massage parlors without having to catch people in the act.

Williams said the new law is helping law enforcement because now it is easier to identify illegal establishments simply because they operate differently.

It came into effect on July 1 of this year, and it’s a game changer for illegal establishments. We can now expect to see a lot of these establishments get in trouble and shut down.

“I think it’s incredible,” Cantrell said. “There has to have been a way besides experiencing it firsthand, but this is a way to check and double-check to see if these people are being logged in and our IDs checked, and make sure it’s not children or young men that are before the age of 18 going in there to get– you know.”

Representative Vicki Lopez (R-Miami), the bill’s sponsor, is very proud of the recent Collier busts.

“I would encourage all law enforcement across the state to take a look at this case, and the way it was handled by the Collier County sheriff and the Department of Health and begin to mirror this work, in terms of investigating their own massage establishments in their own counties,” Lopez said.

She called it a game-changer.

“Imagine if we start arresting all of these people in these illicit massage establishments, we start suspending the licenses of not only the massage therapist but on the establishment? Maybe we can actually, you know, really make a dent in the in the human trafficking crisis that we have in Florida,” Lopez said.

Lopez said that before July 1, law enforcement and the Department of Health didn’t have all the tools they needed to take down these illicit establishments.

Now they do, she said. “If they’re violating those standards, then most probably — such as not having documentation on people and not having licenses for people — that means you’re not legitimate, and so I don’t have to catch you in order to close you now.”

The law requires these establishments and their customers to have proper documentation. All of the people arrested in Collier County failed to meet those requirements.

The bill sets standards for what constitutes a legitimate establishment and requires licensed practitioners to maintain documentation and adhere to safety protocols. This makes it easier for law enforcement to identify and shut down illegal activities.

• Read the full bill’s details here

The Collier County Sheriff’s Office is the first law enforcement agency in Florida to implement House Bill 197, which allows them to investigate and prosecute human trafficking cases without having to catch perpetrators in the act.

Lopez said CCSO was critical in drafting the legislation. The department came to the politicians and asked for help, which is how the new law came to light.

“It really is evidence of what the Collier County Sheriff’s told us at the beginning of this journey: that, in fact, they didn’t have the tools to do what they’ve just done,” Lopez said.

Lopez also said similar legislation for nail salons may also be next.

The investigations in Collier County are still ongoing.