On June 16, law enforcement executed a search warrant on Magic Health Massage Spa in Millcreek Township in an ongoing effort targeting illicit massage businesses in Erie County. Law enforcement arrested two New York women who allegedly lived at the illicit massage business and provided commercial sex acts to patrons. Both women were charged with promotion of prostitution, and their preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 21, 2026.
One of the women arrested allegedly told investigators that she had been living and working at Magic Health since 2025. While both women told state police they were not forced to do anything at Magic Health, one of the women did tell investigators that they had a boss that resides in New York.
The raid on Magic Health was the latest in a series of investigations conducted throughout Erie County over the past year targeting illicit massage businesses. As the CSE Institute has previously reported, law enforcement raided Lucy Spa, another illicit massage business in Millcreek Township, earlier last month. Law enforcement also executed a search warrant on Summer Foot Spa, in North East, in April of this year.
Illicit massage businesses are common throughout Pennsylvania and provide a legal facade for commercial sexual exploitation. The women who are trafficked in illicit massage businesses are typically 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.
The CSE Institute is disappointed by the pattern of arrests in these illicit massage business raids. Rather than arresting the women in prostitution, we encourage Erie County law enforcement to focus their investigation on the buyers soliciting commercial sex from these illicit massage businesses. The Equality Model targets the demand for buying sex by decriminalizing those who are bought and sold for sex and criminalizing sex buyers. The Equality Model includes four key tenets: (1) decriminalization of people in prostitution, (2) criminalization of sex buyers and facilitators, (3) public education about the inherent harms of prostitution, and (4) holistic exit services for victims of commercial sexual exploitation.
Additionally, the CSE Institute encourages Erie County law enforcement to conduct careful investigation into the potential victimization of either woman arrested in this case. The line between victim and offender is often blurred in sex trafficking situations. The victim-offender overlap is rooted in coercion, survival, and trauma, not voluntary criminality. Understanding the complexity of forced criminality is important because criminalization perpetuates harm and can act as a barrier to a victim’s recovery. Ultimately, we hope that in combating illicit massage businesses, law enforcement will aim their efforts at sex buyers, while protecting and supporting victims.
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.