Condom-clogged pipe provides police clue in cracking Texas brothel

[April 12, 2017]  By Jon Herskovitz

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Hundreds of condoms that clogged a city sewer pipe led police to raid a massage parlor in Texas and arrest two people for prostitution and other crimes, police documents released on Tuesday showed.

A real estate agent who had just taken over the property notified police of the blockage at Jade Massage Therapy in the Texas capital of Austin. He told them other tenants believed the business was a front for prostitution, a police arrest affidavit said.

Austin police then launched their probe that culminated in a raid about six weeks later where a woman who co-managed the business "was found in a massage room with a completely nude and uncovered male," the document said.

Juan Wang and her husband Joseph Emery were arrested on suspicion of managing "a prostitution enterprise that used two or more prostitutes," it said.

No lawyer was listed on the arrest affidavit and the company's phone went to voicemail. Neither person could be immediately reached for comment.

The door remains shut at Jade Massage Therapy following a late March 2017 police raid in Austin, Texas, U.S., April 11, 2017. REUTERS/Jon Herskovitz

Police also discovered more than $60,000 in cash at the woman's home. She and her husband were arrested in March and charged with engaging in organized criminal activity to promote prostitution and money laundering, court documents filed in April showed.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Andrew Hay)

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