The shuttered business at Unit 5, 1328 Main St.
Photo: Lee Burnett
By Lee Burnett
A nondescript spa on lower Main Street raised the eyebrows of neighbors long before police shut the business down recently on suspicion of coercing women to participate in a sex trafficking ring.
Armed with a search warrant, Sanford Police, the York County Sheriff’s Department and Homeland Security Investigations on Feb. 16 raided Unit 5 of the mini mall at 1328 Main St. Women who were encountered were put in touch with Preble Street, a Portland social service agency that provides anti-trafficking services, according to Maj. Mark Dyer. The unit was later placarded as “uninhabitable.”
Sanford police are coordinating their investigation with Homeland Security Investigations, Dyer said.
“Generally, with sex trafficking, we see it as a larger operation. I can’t elaborate,” Dyer said. No developments were reported this week.
The owner of a neighboring business said she became suspicious soon after the business opened last summer because the owner did not make themselves known to neighbors and because the business displayed no advertising visible from the street other than a small “Spa” sign.
“That was the first red flag to me,” said Katrina Wiggin, owner of Copy Kats. She called the mall’s landlord to inquire about the business but learned no more.
She also noticed, under a side deck where a dumpster was stationed, that a sheet or tarp was hanging as an enclosure. She guessed it was an outdoor shower. “That was very strange,” she said. When she met women in a common bathroom downstairs, she said, they seemed “very timid, definitely uncomfortable.”
She alerted police to her concerns.
Another business owner noticed the clients were all men who arrived at odd hours and stayed 30 to 45 minutes. This businessperson occasionally visited to turn over mis-delivered mail. On those occasions, the door was cracked open and someone asked about the purpose of the visit before it was swung wide to allow entry. This businessperson noticed five women “all Asian, none spoke English.”
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