Court docs: Concord spa under nearly decade-long scrutiny for suspected prostitution

Last week’s raid on Oriental Bodywork Spa in Concord wasn’t the first time law enforcement had come knocking on its doors.

People have raised concerns about the spa, located directly across from the New Hampshire State Prison, for nearly a decade, drawing suspicion from both federal and state authorities over allegations of prostitution and human trafficking.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security found bulk orders of condoms, substantial cash seizures and messages arranging prostitution appointments during a search in 2016, according to court documents filed after Wednesday’s raid by the Concord Police Department.

Federal investigators uncovered evidence linking the spa’s owner, Yanxia Gao, and her partner, Dongbo Su, to scheduling prostitution appointments through escort websites, along with online records showing the exchange of “sexual acts for money.”

Despite this, the investigation was closed in 2018, and the United States Attorney’s Office decided not to prosecute at that time.

Over at least seven years, the Concord Police Department received several tips and reports about suspicious activity at the spa — from unusual signage and allegations of sexual acts being performed for money to complaints of inappropriate touching without consent.

In 2022, Merrimack Valley High School alerted police after a student said he had paid for sexual acts at the spa.

Years of these accumulating reports and investigations finally culminated in a raid on the spa this past Wednesday.

Week of the arrest

According to court documents, Concord Detective Garrett Lemoine secured a search warrant on July 28 for both the spa and an apartment located above the auto sales and service shop next door.

The search warrant for the apartment was obtained in an effort to locate the spa’s owner, Gao.

During a raid conducted on July 30, authorities arrested 49-year-old Xueying Weng on charges of simple assault and sexual assault. Suhua Tang, 52, was also arrested and charged with a misdemeanor related to prostitution.

Affidavits show that on the day of the arrests, local police made contact with two men who had just received services at the spa — one reported being touched inappropriately without consent, while the other said he had gone there specifically to engage in sexual activity.

A 43-year-old man was stopped by local police as he drove away from the spa.

He told officers he had gone in for a deep tissue massage, but things quickly took an unexpected and uncomfortable turn when Weng began touching him in a way that felt more like a “prelude to sex” than a legitimate massage. She then began performing sexual acts without his consent.

Disturbed by what happened, he left the spa and called the Human Trafficking Hotline.

That call was later confirmed by an investigator with the Attorney General’s Office. Weng said she rubbed the man’s inner thigh but denied doing anything sexual.

Another man, a 66-year-old, was leaving the spa when he was approached by law enforcement. He told officers he had been a regular customer for the past four and a half years and engaged in sexual activity during his visits, describing it as a “two-way street.”

He said he typically paid $70 upfront before the service. The man said he had received the services that day from Tang, who was arrested and provided an address in Flushing, N.Y., according to court documents.

The man was allowed to leave after speaking with the police. However, the Attorney General’s Office has made it clear that those buying illicit services will also be held accountable.

“If you are buying sex at these businesses, you are funding human trafficking. You are part of the problem — and we will hold you accountable,” said Attorney General John Formella in a press release in July. “If you are running one of these operations, know that our efforts will continue until every one of these businesses is shut down.”

Evidence in trash

The investigation into Oriental Bodywork Spa began last August.

In May, the Concord Police Department installed a “covert surveillance platform” to monitor the business closely.

Lemoine, the Concord detective, revealed in court documents that he witnessed multiple customers arriving at the spa throughout the day — one even as late as 9:30 p.m. But it wasn’t just the unusual hours that raised red flags.

Lemoine also observed employees taking out trash and loading it into a vehicle driven away by Gao, the business owner.

“I found this to be an indicator of illicit activity, as it is abnormal for business owners to show up on property to drive trash off-site,” wrote Lemoine. “I found the activity of removing the trash away from a business to be a possible mode to better conceal or remove evidence of criminal activity.”

On one occasion, authorities tracked Gao’s vehicle and discovered that she dumped the trash into a dumpster at an apartment complex in Manchester.

Upon sorting through the trash bags, investigators found disposable cover sheets used for massage tables, bottles of massage oil and lotion and crumpled tissue papers with a substance later identified as seminal fluid.

Lemoine wrote that of the 130 customers he observed, approximately 94% were male.

“I know that massage parlors and spas with an overwhelmingly and disproportionate male customer base to be a very strong indicator of illicit activity, specifically sex work,” he wrote in the affidavit.

The Concord spa is one of more than 15 businesses that have been closed after the New Hampshire Department of Justice launched a targeted enforcement campaign in November to shut down illicit massage businesses that operate as fronts for human trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation.

Businesses have also closed in Derry, Londonderry, Hudson, Merrimack, Manchester, Dover, Salem and Somersworth since the investigation began.