A recent sweep of Santa Clarita Valley massage parlors led to five citations and two prostitution arrests, a Sheriff’s Department official said Monday.
The two prostitution arrests happened at separate locations.
Linda Ditrich, of Stevenson Ranch, was arrested on a prostitution charge at Aqua Pearl Day Spa in the 31800 block of Castaic Road.
Lihua Liu, of San Gabriel, was arrested on a prostitution charge at Oriental Massage, which is in the 18500 block of Soledad Canyon Road.
There were five places found to have violations, Walker said.
He declined to release the other businesses’ names, citing the fact that there were ongoing investigations at those locations occurring with the various departments involved.
“They’re going to do an administrative investigation that may span the course of months,” Walker said.
The businesses involved faced a maximum fine of $50,000 each, Walker said.
“We inspected five locations in the city of Santa Clarita,” said Sgt. Jeff Walker of the Sheriff’s Department’s Major Crime Bureau’s Vice Unit.
“All of (the locations in city limits) were on Soledad Canyon Road,” Walker said.
The undercover operation was a joint effort between state, county and city officials, he said.
“We inspected six locations, five were deemed in violation,” Walker said.
The state’s Employment Development Division and Labor Department worked with the county treasurer’s office and the city’s code enforcement officials all played a role in coordinating the raid, Walker said.
The operation was a partnership between the Sheriff’s Department’s Major Crimes Bureau, which is headquartered downtown, and local Sheriff’s Station deputies.
“Deputies from the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station assisted the Major Crimes Bureau in this operation,” said Deputy Josh Dubin of the Santa Clarita Valley.
Dubin said these type of operations occur periodically throughout the year, and future operations are expected.
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