Kennewick police shut down two massage businesses on Sept. 30 as part of an ongoing human trafficking investigation. Both sit at addresses raided in nearly identical fashion seven months earlier.
Detectives with the Kennewick Police Department's Criminal Investigations Division served search warrants at White Flower Spa, 5612 W. Clearwater Ave. #A, and Blue Ocean Spa, 418 N. Kellogg St. Suite G. Both businesses were closed and their city business licenses are being revoked, police said, according to AppleValleyNewsNow.
Investigators detained three women on suspicion of soliciting prostitution. Detectives are working with community advocates to offer services and screen the women for signs they may be trafficking victims, police said.
Same addresses, same names
Kennewick police raided these same two businesses, under these same names, in March 2026, serving search warrants at the identical addresses "following an ongoing investigation," according to a department statement reported by NEWStalk 870 at the time. It isn't clear from public records whether the spas stayed open continuously between March and September or closed and later reopened under the same ownership. Kennewick police have not addressed that detail in their Sept. 30 announcement, reported by AppleValleyNewsNow.
Around the same time in March 2026, a separate department operation involving the Criminal Investigations Division, the Criminal Apprehension Team and the Tri-City Metro Drug Task Force shut down four other Kennewick massage parlors on prostitution allegations: Dream Spa, R Massage, Sunrise Massage Spa and Sunrise Massage, according to Elkhorn Media Group. Dream Spa's owner, 39-year-old Aiping Zhao, was arrested on prostitution charges, and the three other owners were cited for allowing prostitution at their businesses. All four were shut down and their licenses revoked at the time.
It's not yet clear who owns or operates White Flower Spa and Blue Ocean Spa now, or whether the operators are connected to anyone named in the March case. Kennewick police did not identify a suspect or announce charges in the Sept. 30 release.
Police said the goal of these operations is "to identify victims of human trafficking, connect them with advocacy and support services, and determine whether businesses are operating illegally — either by offering unlawful services or violating business licensing requirements," according to the Elkhorn Media Group report.
A pattern the city's ordinance hasn't stopped
This is at least the third documented round of Kennewick massage-parlor trafficking raids in roughly a year and a half. The Tri-City Herald, via Yahoo News, found that a string of raids starting in March led to 11 Tri-Cities massage parlors closing, six tied directly to sex-trafficking allegations and two over licensing violations.
The Herald has also reported on the case of Linhui Yan, whose Washington massage-therapy license was suspended after felony charges in Chelan County tied to a statewide trafficking ring, according to AOL. That investigation drew added attention when former Kennewick Mayor Bill McKay admitted paying for sexual services at one of the raided Clearwater Avenue businesses, the Herald reported.
Kennewick's City Council passed a tougher ordinance in June 2023, effective that September, requiring massage therapists and reflexologists to hold a state Department of Health license and be at least 18, according to NBC Right Now. But this week's raids show a shuttered address can end up back in business under the same name within months. A Tri-City Herald guest editorial earlier this year argued state lawmakers need to give police stronger tools, saying local law enforcement is "playing whack-a-mole with massage parlors engaged in human trafficking," according to the Lewiston Tribune.
Whether the city has identified a loophole that lets shut-down addresses resume operating so quickly remains an open question, as does the status of any criminal charges stemming from the Sept. 30 raid.
Kennewick police are asking anyone with information about the two businesses, or anyone who suspects human trafficking or other illegal activity elsewhere in the community, to call the department's non-emergency dispatch line at 509-628-0333 or submit a tip anonymously online.
