“When I was in the space, it took me a moment but then I quickly connected the dots,” Kodsi said. Kodsi’s mother, Rachel Foster, is the co-founder of the anti-trafficking group World Without Exploitation - so the teen grew up learning about what the sex trade looks like and helped start the group’s youth coalition. It was very clear to me at that point that this particular parlor had gained a reputation amongst men looking for a certain attention late at night,” Kodsi said. “She told him to wait in the street and he left to go back downstairs.
According to recent data, for every Starbucks that’s in the five boroughs, there are at least two illicit massage businesses (IMBs). Once Kodsi was on the table, the worker received “half a dozen calls” during the first 20 minutes from a man she said was inebriated and “begging for an appointment,” and about halfway through the massage, the man burst into the room and demanded services in slurred speech. The one-woman show, mixed with the strange negotiations of service and payment, made me uneasy,” the teen explained. “She requested payment up front and tried negotiating a tip, starting at 40 percent, but I requested she keep it at 20 percent. Kodsi, whose family has lived in the neighborhood for over 50 years, quickly started to notice other red flags. I said no, just the massage.” Ming Happy Spa, which doubles as a brothel, is just one of 629 businesses that operate in plain sight. “She asked me several times if I wanted anything ‘other than the massage,’ including a shower beforehand. She asked me what I wanted and I simply said an hour-long back massage,” 17-year-old Matthew Kodsi told The Post.
GAY MASSAGE NYC MANHATTAN WINDOWS
Mainstream chains like UPS and CityMD neighbor the business on the bustling block and stock art of men, women and couples receiving luxurious massages are displayed on the windows alongside the business’s phone number, hours and address.īut earlier this summer, a local teenager in search of an affordable massage after a boxing session at Gleason’s Gym wandered in and noticed the hallmarks of a place offering more than spa services. Like many other IMBs, the Ming Happy Spa looks innocent enough from Montague Street’s sidewalk. In Queens, which has at least 269 open brothels, the illicit businesses outnumber Starbucks 5 to 1, the data from the intelligence-driven counter-trafficking organization that focuses exclusively on the illicit massage industry shows.
The alleged illicit massage business in the upscale neighborhood is one of at least 629 others currently operating across the five boroughs - a network of illegal enterprises so vast, they outnumber Starbucks 2 to 1 citywide, according to data from Heyrick Research.įor every Starbucks that’s in the five boroughs, there are at least two IMBs. seven nights a week, is next door to a high-end women’s boutique and operates an innocuous second-floor storefront that sees a steady stream of well-dressed male clientele late into the night. The Ming Happy Spa on Montague Street, conspicuously open until 1 a.m. In one of New York’s toniest neighborhoods, just a few blocks from the Brooklyn federal courthouse, a shady massage parlor is hidden in plain view. ‘I would have died’: Woman recounts harrowing escape from sex trafficking in new doc NXIVM heads Keith Raniere and Clare Bronfman to appeal sex cult cases Tuesday Nxivm leader Keith Raniere claims FBI planted child porn on his hard drive Pimp who chopped up prostitute charged with murder, sex trafficking