No happy ending, Mother and son sentenced in massage parlor prostitution ring - Artesia Daily Press

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Adrian Hedden
El Rito Media
achedden@currentargus.com

A woman police said led a prostitution ring at massage parlors throughout southeast New Mexico and West Texas was sentenced to a year in federal prison, while her son was released from custody after being charged for his role in the criminal enterprise.

Shaoping Wen, 65, and her son Xu Wang, 42, were sentenced in federal court in the Northern District of Texas on March 18 after being indicted in September 2024 for conspiracy to use interstate travel in aid of racketeering enterprises. Wen and Wang were arrested in March 2024 in Carlsbad and Roswell, respectively.

The pair made initial federal court appearances in Las Cruces, and in September 2024 were extradited to face prosecution in Texas where the investigation began in the Lubbock area.

Wen pleaded guilty in November 2024 and was sentenced to 12 months and one day in federal prison, followed by a year of supervised release. She was also ordered to forfeit $291,990 in cash police believed was tied to the illegal businesses and pay a $1.8 million judgment to the federal government.

For his role in the conspiracy, Wang pleaded guilty to misprision of a felony in November 2024, and was sentenced to time served of 362 days, meaning he already served his prison term awaiting trial and will be on supervised release for another year.

Misprision of a felony means Wang admitted to concealing his knowledge of a felony being committed and failed to report it to authorities. Investigators said he operated the parlors while his mother Wen was out of town, and that both of them were seen paying bail for women arrested in the past for prostitution at the parlors.

Charges stem from raids in Carlsbad and other New Mexico cities

What follows is a summary of the events leading up to Wen’s and Wang’s arrests, according to federal criminal complaints.

Investigators said Wen owned and operated two “illicit” massage parlors in Carlsbad, two in Roswell, one in Clovis and three in the Lubbock area. Other parlors Wen owned in Lubbock were previously closed by law enforcement, police said, due to “prostitution and landlord evictions.”

Undercover operations in New Mexico were conducted in February and March 2024, as police gathered evidence of prostitution at each of the parlors. The number of women accused of prostitution while in Wen and Wang’s employ was unclear as were the women’s ages and citizenship status.

The New Mexico parlors were tied to an initial investigation that began in June 2023 when a “concerned citizen” contacted police about potential human trafficking in Wolforth, Texas, a Lubbock suburb.

Four days later, an undercover operation was conducted at that location. An undercover officer entered the parlor and was greeted by a woman wearing lingerie, who he paid $60 for a massage, read the complaint. She later agreed to have sex with the officer for $140; the officer told the woman he had changed his mind and left the parlor.

Other people in the area subsequently reported suspicions to local police that the massage parlor only served men and that women were getting dropped off with luggage and going straight into the business where they appeared to live. Observers also said the business appeared to serve customers until midnight, and that they would stay for about 30 or 40 minutes at a time.

Advertisements for the parlors were found on known sex trafficking online platforms “Skipthegames” and “Rubmaps,” read the complaint.

Police searched another parlor in August 2023 in Lubbock, finding beds on the floor, hygiene products and clothing that police said indicated women were living there. It was a piece of paper found at that business with Wen’s email address that linked the suspect to the illegal parlor.

Subsequent searches at other parlors revealed similar evidence, along with receipts from stores in Roswell. Police then obtained a mobile tracking warrant for Wen’s red Hyundai Santa Fe, following her to two parlors in Carlsbad in the 300 block of Canyon Street and the 700 block of Guadalupe Street.

Wen was also tracked to parlors in the 1100 block of South Main Street and 2600 block of North Main Street in Roswell and the 800 block of North Prince Street in Clovis. Police later confirmed all five New Mexico parlors were owned by Wen, and she was observed picking up groups of women from the Roswell Air Center and bringing them to the parlors.

Police said sting operations were conducted in February 2024 at the New Mexico locations, where undercover agents reported women who worked at the parlors offered them sex for money.

Police later observed Wen traveling to a casino in Commerce, California, where investigators learned that she laundered money, buying casino chips and cashing out for about $1.7 million in “clean money” between January 2018 and August 2023.