A Lorain County grand jury has indicted two men after a multi-year human trafficking and money laundering investigation connected to King Me Spa in Eaton Township, with three women identified as labor trafficking victims now in the care of victim advocates. The case against Ivan Song, of New York, and Xuecheng Huang, of Indiana, traces back to 2024 and involves charges including trafficking in persons for commercial sex acts, racketeering, money laundering and possession of criminal tools.
According to Cleveland 19 News, the Lorain County Sheriff's Office said the investigation began in 2024, though early undercover operations at the time produced insufficient evidence for charges. The case didn't stay dormant for long — the station reports that the H.E.A.L. Human Trafficking Task Force later received new tips about illegal activity at the spa and ran a fresh round of undercover stings in 2026, with investigators zeroing in on possible labor and sex trafficking of the women working there.
A Traffic Stop That Cracked the Case Open
Detectives had been watching the business in Eaton Township for a while. The outlet notes that on May 2, 2026, detectives observed a transit van and two men entering and leaving the rear of the spa, prompting a traffic stop that turned up a brick-sized package containing more than $53,000 in cash, along with several people riding in the vehicle.
During that stop, deputies said Ivan Song admitted he was being paid to drive people and cash for an organization, relying on texted pickup and drop-off addresses that led to New York City, per the same report. Two additional traffic stops that year allegedly caught Song carrying out the same activity, though those additional stops remain allegations at this stage.
Search Warrant Uncovers Cash, Ledgers and Victims
Investigators didn't stop at the roadside. Warrants were filed in the case on June 3, 2026, and a search warrant executed at King Me Spa on May 13, 2026 uncovered more than $18,000 in cash, business ledgers, video surveillance equipment and a customer on site, the station's report states.
That search is where the human toll of the case came into focus. Three women were identified as labor trafficking victims working at the spa, and the Cleveland 19 report says they had been brought to the United States under false promises of a work-study program. All three are now in the care of victim advocates.
This wasn't the first time the public heard about trouble at that address. Cleveland 19's earlier coverage of the H.E.A.L. task force's search of King Me Massage Parlor at 35111 Royalton Road described money seized, several women interviewed, victims referred for services, and the business ultimately closed down by the task force — with the sheriff's office cautioning at the time that the investigation remained ongoing.
Arrests Followed Months Later
Ivan Song was arrested during a traffic stop on the Ohio Turnpike on June 16, 2026. Xuecheng Huang was taken into custody in South Bend, Indiana, on September 25, 2026, and was transferred to the Lorain County Jail, according to the station's reporting. A grand jury has since indicted both men on the charges listed above; an indictment is an accusation, not a finding of guilt, and the case has not been resolved in court.
Part of a Broader Statewide Push
The King Me Spa case unfolded alongside a larger statewide crackdown. During the Ohio Attorney General's Operation Spring Cleaning, 122 suspects were arrested statewide, including 13 local suspects, and four survivors of sex trafficking were rescued, Cleveland 19 reported. A related account from FOX 8 said the H.E.A.L. task force itself made one arrest, executed one search warrant at a local spa, identified three trafficking survivors referred to social services, and seized $18,622 in cash during that operation. The Chronicle-Telegram, in its own account of the sting, reported that search warrants were executed at several locations, including King Me Spa in Grafton.
The H.E.A.L. Human Trafficking Task Force serves Huron, Erie, Ashland and Lorain counties, with a stated mission to identify and protect victims, aggressively investigate those who exploit them, and hold traffickers accountable, according to the Lorain County Sheriff's Office.
Cases Like This Are Hard to Count
Cases like this one are notoriously difficult to measure statewide. The 2026 Ohio Human Trafficking Report assessed that Ohio had 190 illicit massage businesses operating in 2024, and counted 525,697 commercial-sex advertisements posted that year, with the highest monthly total in July at 83,751. The same report logged 334 situations reported to the National Human Trafficking Hotline in 2024, involving 509 potential victims, and found that 74 federally prosecuted human-trafficking cases were filed in Ohio from 2000 through 2023, representing 121 defendants and 177 victims. The report is careful to note that its illicit-massage-business and advertisement figures are proxy estimates for demand, not a measure of how much trafficking is actually occurring.
Investigators are asking anyone who suspects human trafficking or an illicit massage business to contact the H.E.A.L. task force through the Lorain County Sheriff's Office.
