Tucson Police Department released 247 pages of police reports dealing with its investigation into a prostitution ring.
The reports are heavily-redacted information and were released in response to media requests from the Arizona Daily Star and other news organizations.
Police Chief Roberto Villaseñor said Monday he has consulted with prosecutors and doesn’t believe the information will damage the investigations into the massage parlors. The department confirmed Monday that several officers are being investigated as part of the probe.
Most of the documents are related to a Jan. 27, 2015, raid on several properties operated by the "By Spanish" prostitution ring. One of the properties linked to the parlors is a pet store on Tucson's south side.
Here are some excerpts from the police reports:
- One police report suggests at least one more previously unknown location — an apartment in the Fox Point Apartments on North Campbell Avenue — was under active investigation last year related to the prostitution investigation.
- Police investigators are unsure how long the prostitution ring has been in business. An 88-CRIME complaint to the Tucson Police Department was initially made on Nov. 29, 2011, and investigators were able to tie the complaint to advertisements for massages and other services on Backpage.com. However, one partially redacted record suggests one of the rented properties under investigation last year had been rented by the same person since 2006.
- On Backpage.com, By Spanish offered discounts — including 2-for-1 specials to train newly-hired women.
- A raid on one By Spanish location on Jan. 27, 2015, found “hundreds of envelopes” with addresses to locations across the country next to gift certificates for massages.
- In a report, an officer reported finding “a wooden unknown device that is about 3’ tall and 1’ wide; it has a long metal bar that is spring loaded and a rubber mallet screwed to the end of the bar.”
- Police used an armored vehicle to knock down a gate to one of the addresses during the raid and used flash bang devices to distract those working in one of the homes.
- One of the raids on Jan. 27, 2015, caught a person who was nude inside one of the homes. He was allowed by officers to put on his underwear before being detained.
- When a pet store linked to the illegal massage parlors was raided, one of the employees insisted on feeding animals and the fish before leaving the store.
- One client offered false employment documentation to some women working for By Spanish.
— Joe Ferguson
