Two owners of a Tyler-area spa have been charged with human trafficking and prostitution following a law enforcement raid. Lingfeng Wu and Chunfeng Zhang, both 41, were booked and are currently held at the Smith County Jail, each on a $1.5 million bond. Court documents allege the pair coerced a Chinese woman into providing sexual services by threatening to beat her.
The charges stem from an ongoing human-trafficking investigation in Smith County. Investigators with the Smith County Sheriff's Office, Homeland Security, and the Texas Department of Public Safety executed a search warrant at T Spa, located at 12666 State Highway 31 W. in Smith County. Wu and Zhang now face charges of continuous trafficking of persons, aggravated promotion of prostitution, and online promotion of prostitution.
Arrest affidavits, detailing information from court records, describe that the woman, identified by the pseudonym Luna, was recruited online in Hong Kong for what she believed was legitimate massage work. The affidavits allege Wu and Zhang made her live at the spa location, took possession of her passport and identification, and threatened to physically harm her if she refused to perform sexual services. Luna reportedly told detectives that clients requested sexual services on her first day of work, and she was compelled to comply.
Before the raid, the Smith County Sheriff's Office had received multiple 911 calls reporting possible prostitution and human trafficking at the spa, according to the affidavits. During one such call, a responding deputy reportedly encountered Wu and an Asian woman at the spa, who informed the deputy that no one was being trafficked there. The affidavits also allege that Wu and Zhang sent approximately $150,000 to China using payment applications. In a separate incident described in the affidavit account, a 911 caller reportedly assisted Luna in escaping from the parlor after she asked for help during a massage. The caller then drove her to the West Coast, where she is now safe, according to the affidavits.
If convicted, Wu and Zhang could face a minimum of 25 years in prison and up to $10,000 in fines. The allegations against them remain unproven in court. No further case updates have been publicly released beyond the charges and bond amounts confirmed by jail records. Both individuals remain held at the Smith County Jail as the investigation continues.
This Tyler case is part of a broader enforcement effort across Texas targeting massage businesses suspected of human trafficking. The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) has reported that licenses for 63 Texas massage establishments were permanently revoked during the first two years of House Bill 3579, due to suspicions of human trafficking. In a September 16, 2025, release, the TDLR also stated it had issued 53 emergency orders related to suspected human trafficking since late 2023, affecting 78 locations. The department clarified that such orders and license actions are regulatory measures, not criminal convictions or definitive proof that trafficking occurred at each site.
The Texas Attorney General's Office has estimated that more than 2,500 illicit massage businesses operate statewide. This estimate, however, does not represent a count of confirmed trafficking cases, nor does it describe massage businesses generally, according to the Attorney General's Office. In a separate case across Texas, six massage parlors, all under the same ownership, were shut down after investigators alleged employees lived at the locations, worked without licenses, and that sexual paraphernalia and role-playing costumes were found on site. Outside of Texas, similar investigations have surfaced, including in Northern Virginia, where police shut down six massage parlors and rescued several trafficking victims, leading to three arrests. In Pennsylvania, the owner of two Lancaster County spas was charged with operating a commercial sex operation, with investigators alleging online advertisement of commercial sex and transportation of female sex workers to the locations.
