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Officers with the Honolulu Police Department’s narcotics/vice unit, Honolulu Prosecutor’s Office and federal Homeland Security Investigations smashed their way into a Ward Avenue massage parlor Monday morning as part of an ongoing crackdown on prostitution on Oahu.
No one answered the door at Ume Spa at 320 Ward Ave., across Ward Avenue from the old Sports Authority. So HPD officers announced “police” and “search warrant” multiple times at 8 a.m. before using a battering ram to crash through the locked glass door.
Inside, officers found a kitchen, showers and rooms with beds — but no occupants or customers.
Nikki Kerney, owner of Way Gone Aesthetics next door, said Ume Spa is usually open around the clock and that men go in and out all times of the day.
“They raid it every six months or so, and they usually open up again in a week,” Kerney told the
Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
Way Gone Aesthetics worker Rene Rodriguez said he sees “dozens” of men going in and out of Ume Spa “nonstop.”
There is no outdoor sign advertising Ume Spa. A directory for the two-story building does not include
a listing for the upstairs, mauka-side unit 208 that
was raided Monday.
Officers on Monday executed the 11th search warrant of its kind that the Prosecutor’s Office has served on a Honolulu “brothel” in the past 13 months. Officers previously raided the same Ward Avenue location in 2016 when it was called Tokyo Spa.
In the fiscal year that ended June 30, five massage parlors that were served search warrants shut down, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, and 43 people have been indicted.
“Nobody was found here,” said Acting Honolulu Prosecutor Dwight Nadamoto after touring Ume Spa, where shattered glass remained in the entryway. “They knocked and announced, waited. Nobody came to the door so they forced entry. We’re looking for these people right now.”
Nadamoto said law enforcement officials are “trying to close these type of massage parlors. There is a case being built here.”
At the same time, social workers often accompany law enforcement officers when they raid Honolulu massage parlors to help the female employees — although neither social workers nor workers were at the site of Monday’s raid.
The social workers are able to help the women with a range of services, including housing, medical, mental health and substance abuse treatment, said Lynn
Costales, first deputy prosecutor.
“We’re trying to support any of the individuals that are found here to get out of the life,” Costales said.
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