Two separate raids at massage parlors in Colorado Springs on Tuesday netted three arrests and led to the recovery of two women suspected to be the victims of human trafficking, police said.
The arrests, conducted by the Colorado Springs police department’s newly formed human trafficking unit, included charges of human trafficking, pimping, pandering, providing a place for prostitution and prostitution.
The two female victims are being “offered services to assist in their recovery,” police said.
Since the department’s unit was created in January it has recovered 25 child and 34 adult victims of commercial sexual exploitation.
The unit has also arrested sevens pimps and five “Johns” and has seized $38,000.
Police said they arrested Arworn Hamilton, Misook Sledge and Sang White. The massage parlors were on the 1800 block of B Street and the 4000 block of Clearview Frontage Road.
The Colorado State Patrol and Homeland Security assisted in the raids, police said.
The arrests come several months after another set of raids at Colorado Springs massage parlors by the State Patrol that centered around a “broker,” Sona Blair, arrested in December.
Blair is accused of ferrying women from across the nation to be prostituted out of southern Colorado parlors.
In all, eight people in the past year have been arrested on suspicion of facilitating the sale of sex out of Colorado Springs massage parlors, nearly all of whom have been charged with human trafficking.
Federal, state and local law enforcement participated in the arrests.
