On May 25, the Lebanon County Human Trafficking Task Force executed a search warrant on New Venus Spa. Law enforcement arrested two women who allegedly lived at the massage business and provided commercial sex acts to patrons. Both women were charged with promotion of prostitution, and their preliminary hearing is scheduled for June 4, 2026.
Law enforcement executed the search warrant on New Venus Spa after receiving a tip that a patron was offered sexual services in exchange for payment. A detective allegedly went undercover to investigate the massage business and returned with a search warrant the next day. Upon execution of the search warrant, detectives reported finding a large supply of condoms hidden throughout the building as well as a substantial quantity of cash. Authorities discovered that one of the women had previously been arrested for prostitution in Texas in 2024, and ICE has issued an immigration detainer for both women arrested in the raid.
New Venus Spa is the fifth illicit massage business shut down by the Lebanon County Human Trafficking Task Force in the past ten months. According to the Lebanon County District Attorney’s Office, detectives offered housing and other necessities to each of the women found to be in prostitution at these illicit massage businesses in exchange for their cooperation against traffickers, but the “vast majority of females located during the investigation refused all services and told police they voluntarily chose a life of services.”
In response to criticism for charging women for prostitution, Lebanon County District Attorney Pier Hess Graf Police stated, “police undertake every effort to extract the females from a life of prostitution; at times the only way to ensure the cessation of their illegal activity is with criminal charges.” In the same press release, however, DA Hess Graf reported that the women in prostitution at these illicit massage businesses who were willing to speak with the DA’s Office have said: “They pay a large lump sum to travel from their native country to the U.S…. They are deposited at a spa and charged to live there. They can never work off the debt they ‘incur’ simply by existing. They pay the debt off via massages and sexual activity. It is a vicious, never-ending cycle.”
Once again, the CSE Institute is disappointed by DA Hess Graf’s decision to arrest women in systems of prostitution, who she admittedly recognizes are most likely victims of sex trafficking. Criminalizing survivors of sex trafficking for their own victimization is regressive, and the polar opposite of victim-centered trauma-informed prosecution.
Illicit massage businesses are common throughout Pennsylvania and provide a legal facade for commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking. Like here, women who are trafficked in illicit massage businesses are promised work opportunities and a better quality of life but are then trapped in a cycle of cultural manipulation, fraud, and coercion. The complex vulnerabilities associated with race, ethnicity, immigration, and class often prevent victims of exploitation from immediately self-identifying as trafficking victims to law enforcement or service providers. Furthermore, in stating that law enforcement’s goal is to “extract the females from a life of prostitution,” DA Hess Graf perpetuates a harmful narrative that undermines survivors’ autonomy and reinforces the disempowerment they have already experienced.
The CSE Institute reiterates to DA Hess Graf and the Lebanon County Human Trafficking Task Force that persons in prostitution should not, under any circumstances, be arrested during investigations to end the sex trade. People in prostitution are victims of exploitation, not perpetrators of a crime, and arresting them does nothing to eradicate the sex trade. Instead, law enforcement should focus their investigation on the sex buyers who solicited sexual services from these illicit massage businesses. The sex buyers and owners of these spas are the individuals who perpetuate sexual exploitation and keep the commercial sex trade alive.
While the CSE Institute applauds the Lebanon County Human Trafficking Task Force for continuing investigation into these illicit massage businesses, we are disappointed in their decision to arrest these two women. Combatting commercial sexual exploitation requires holding sex buyers accountable, identifying victims, and providing them with support. We hope that law enforcement and the Lebanon County District Attorney’s office will use their power to do justice for victims, rather than perpetuate their victimization.
The CSE Institute will continue to provide updates on this matter.
All views expressed herein are personal to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law or of Villanova University.