On February 10, the Lebanon County District Attorney’s Office announced charges against Chiao Ling Chiang, 53, and Pei Chi Wu, 49, for their role in alleged sex trafficking operating under the guise of legitimate massage parlors. The women were charged with multiple counts of trafficking in individuals, involuntary servitude, promotion of prostitution, and criminal conspiracy, and one count of corrupt organizations. Chiang and Wu have yet to be arraigned on their charges.
As the CSE Institute previously reported, on July 2, 2025, the Lebanon County Human Trafficking Task Force executed a search warrant at “Smile Spa” after officials received reports of male customers paying for sex acts at the illicit massage business. During the raid, the Task Force arrested two women who worked and resided at the spa. The names of the women arrested in the raid have not been released, so it is unclear from reports whether the women arrested were Chiang and Wu.
In a similar raid on September 18, 2025, the Lebanon County Human Trafficking Task Force arrested two other women who worked and lived at “New New Spa,” another alleged illicit massage business in Lebanon County. It does not appear that the Lebanon County DA’s Office has pursued prostitution charges against any of the victims arrested in these raids. Furthermore, the Lebanon County DA’s Office is not pursuing prostitution charges against Chiang and Wu and is instead charging them with § 5902(b)(1) with owning, controlling, managing, supervising or otherwise keeping a house of prostitution or a prostitution business.
One of the women allegedly trafficked by Chiang and Wu identified Wu as the manager and Chiang as the owner of both Smile Spa and New Yoko Spa. Law enforcement executed a search warrant on “Anne Spa,” formerly known as New Yoko Spa, on January 22, 2026, and learned the spa had new owners but still had a woman residing at the spa performing sex acts under the guise of massages. The owner told investigators that he and his wife bought the spa for $35,000 from Chiang on July 15, 2025, 13 days after the search warrant was executed at Smile Spa. Lebanon County District Attorney Pier Hess Graff stated that these sexual services dated back to when Chiang and Wu operated New Yoko Spa.
According to court documents, the woman was transported to Smile Spa by Wu and was instructed to “do whatever the clients want” when she began working for Chiang and Wu. The woman told investigators that Wu would decrease her hours if she refused some of the clients’ requests, that she was scared of Wu, and that she had to pay rent to live at the illicit massage business. Another woman allegedly trafficked by Chiang and Wu told investigators that Wu watched the women on surveillance and yelled at them if the sex buyers complained of poor service. This woman asserted that she only received “tips” and the rest of her earnings went toward her rent. She also stated that she was scared of Chiang and Wu and was worried they would harm her.
Based on investigators’ interviews with the women, it appears that Chiang and Wu ran this sex trafficking operation and were not at all victimized. This is a crucial point, as the line between victim and offender is often blurred in sex trafficking situations and requires careful investigation into the nuances of an individual’s potential victimization to determine whether to pursue trafficking charges. Thevictim-offender overlap refers to situations in which victims of sex trafficking are also criminalized for offenses committed during or as a result of their exploitation. Studies have shown that traffickers sometimes force victims into the role of a “bottom girl,” in which victims recruit or manage other victims under coercion, giving rise to this victim-offender position. This overlap is rooted in coercion, survival strategies, 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 survivor reestablishing their life after exploitation.
The CSE Institute commends the Lebanon County District Attorney’s Office in their decision not to pursue prostitution charges against the women working in the illicit massage business and arrested in the raids. Furthermore, we applaud Lebanon County law enforcement for continuing their investigation into Smile Spa and New Yoko after these initial arrests. However, we reiterate the importance of holding the sex buyers accountable in this case and encourage law enforcement to investigate the sex buyers who were soliciting sexual services from the women working in these illicit massage business.
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.