Women involved in York County probe admit to running prostitution from massage spas - York Dispatch

[Aimee Ambrose]

A Camp Hill woman and her daughter, who investigators in York County pinned as central figures in a prostitution ring here, have admitted to roles in leading another prostitution operation in Cumberland County.

Min Dong, 56, and Qi Guo, 33, both pleaded guilty, apparently on May 5, to felony counts of corrupt organizations, promoting prostitution and dealing in proceeds from unlawful activity, court documents show.

Human trafficking charges, one of which was recently added in Guo’s case, were dismissed along with further counts of prostitution, corrupt organizations, illegal proceeds and conspiracy as part of the pleas.

Dong and Guo are scheduled to be sentenced on June 2. Three co-defendants in the case have upcoming hearings and a trial scheduled.

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The group was charged in 2023 following a lengthy investigation into three or four massage spas that were used as prostitution fronts in Mechanicsburg, Camp Hill, Lemoyne and Lower Allen Township.

Cumberland County’s case coincided with a similar investigation into prostitution at four spa properties in York County that Dong and Guo allegedly owned or controlled. Charges were filed against them and five other co-defendants here in late 2023 and early 2024.

The investigation in Cumberland County began in late 2018 through a township police agency. But they had to suspend the case as businesses closed during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. County detectives then reopened the investigation in 2023, charging documents show.

Evidence of prostitution at the spas included surveillance, searches that turned up discarded condoms and interviews with men who allegedly admitted to investigators that they paid for sex acts. Ads for the spas also appeared on adult websites, the charging documents alleged.

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Detectives used county property data, state business records and banking information to connect Guo and Dong as owners of the properties where the spas operated.

The other three defendants, Zigui Zheng, Shibiao Hu and Yan Qiu, were allegedly connected as the spa business owners or managers.

Banking data showed Zheng and Hu signed rent checks that were made from three of the spas to accounts associated with Dong and Guo, detectives alleged in charging documents.

Like Dong and Guo, when the case was filed, Zheng, Hu and Qiu were also charged with promoting prostitution, human trafficking, corrupt organizations, dealing in illegal proceeds and conspiracy.

Their cases are still underway, with bail hearings for each of them set for Tuesday afternoon, court documents show.

All five are currently free on their respective bails.

The investigation in York County uncovered a similar pattern as detectives alleged Dong, along with Guo, held control over four massage spas in West Manchester, Penn, York and Springettsbury townships through property ownerships and leases.

The spas, respectively, were Lisa’s Spa, Amy’s Massage, Anna’s Spa and Ivy’s Spa.

Investigators cited one witness as alleging he partnered with Dong to start spas in York and Springettsbury townships, which included setting up their business registrations and leases.

That witness allegedly described the overall operation for detectives, saying Dong set up the spas, got them running, and then sold the management to new owners through online ads, according to charging documents.

Dong and Guo, as the property owners and leaseholders, allegedly collected rent and portions of profits from the spa managers. But the witness further alleged that Dong kept some operational control and could take a spa back from a manager if the arrangement didn’t work.

Investigators relied on property, business and banking records, as well as documents taken from searches, as evidence of Dong and Guo’s connections to the spas and the other defendants in the local case.

Surveillance, interviews with alleged patrons and evidence from searches, including condoms, ledgers and documents, helped argue the spas here were also prostitution fronts.

The York and Cumberland investigations even dovetailed in August 2023 as police in both counties raided spas and other locations to conduct searches on the same day. The Cumberland County searches were done as part of an anti-human trafficking operation.

YWCA staff in York City provided health services and resources to women found at the local businesses, the agency has said.

The York County investigation led to charges against Dong, Guo and five other people: Jie Zhou, Xianqiong Zhao, Xiao Lin, Shiqing Liu and Yinmei Zeng.

Charging documents pointed to Zhou, Zhao, Lin and Liu as spa managers.

Zeng, as an employee, allegedly drove women back and forth between one spa and a couple of safehouses during part of 2023, according to the documents.

She pleaded guilty to misdemeanors for her role in December 2024 and was sentenced to probation.

Xiao Lin, of Queens, New York, then pleaded guilty in February to a misdemeanor count of promoting prostitution as manager of Anna’s Spa in York Township.

He admitted he bought into the business in the summer of 2023, near the tail-end of the investigation, and that he didn’t “take reasonable steps to stop the prostitution,” his attorney stated in court.

Lin was sentenced to a year of probation.

Dong, meanwhile, pleaded no contest to counts of promoting prostitution, corrupt organizations and dealing in illegal proceeds in her local case last December. The plea meant she didn’t admit guilt, but she didn’t challenge the accusations.

She, too, was sentenced to probation, with a three-year term that included nine months of house arrest.

Guo, Zhou, Zhao and Liu’s cases are still working through York County’s court processes.

Court documents show Guo has a hearing scheduled for June 11, which would be held in the week after she’s sentenced in Cumberland County.

— Aimee Ambrose can be reached at [email protected].

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