COLUMBUS – Two sisters were sentenced to 10 years in prison for bringing women to central Ohio from China to work as sex slaves in three area massage parlors.
Visiting Delaware County Common Pleas Judge J. Timothy Campbell on Friday sentenced Qing Xu, 58 (above left), and her sister, Estella, 55 (right), to 10 years in prison each after they were found guilty of compelling employees at their three massage parlors to engage in sexual activity for hire, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, Delaware County Prosecutor Carol O’Brien, and Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien announced.
The women were also both as Tier I sex offenders.
A Delaware County jury in August found the sisters guilty of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity with a human trafficking specification, promoting prostitution with human trafficking specifications, money laundering and practicing medicine without a license.
Member of the Central Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force began investigating suspicious activity at the Amsun Massage businesses in Powell and Worthington and at Rainbow Massage in Columbus after tips from the community indicated that customers were purchasing sex at the massage parlors and some workers appeared to be living at the locations, DeWine said.
Investigators executed search warrants at the three businesses and the sisters’ Columbus apartment in January and found that the duo recruited women from outside the state who were native to China, could not speak English, and had no ties to Central Ohio, leading them to believe that they would be working legitimate massage parlor jobs, but instead forcing them to engage in sexual conduct with customers, DeWine said.