From the Arkansas Advocate:
The arrest of a Chinese-American man who ran three Hot Springs massage parlors will help Arkansas authorities continue to crack down on human trafficking, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin said Thursday at a press conference.
Zengguang “Gary” Liu is a naturalized U.S. citizen whom Griffin said is part of a “Chinese-focused effort” and “criminal enterprise” engaged in sexual slavery.
Police and U.S. Marshals arrested Liu earlier this week in Oklahoma City and charged him with two felonies: human trafficking, a Class A felony, and unauthorized use of another person’s property to facilitate certain crimes, a Class B felony, according to a news release from Griffin’s office.
Liu owned the AI Massage, Magic Massage, and Diamond Massage parlors in Hot Springs and “likely owned other such establishments elsewhere in the country,” Griffin’s office learned after raiding all three businesses on July 28, the news release states. Authorities seized about $16,000 in cash in multiple currencies, including American and Chinese.
The raid was part of Operation Obscured Vision, a coordinated effort Griffin’s office started in January to raid massage parlors throughout the state in search of illegal activity. Besides Hot Springs, the office has conducted raids in Harrison, Jonesboro, Little Rock, Rogers and Russellville. Authorities have issued search warrants at 13 businesses and arrested seven people. Six of the arrested are Chinese nationals, and three of the six are naturalized U.S. citizens, according to the news release.
After the July 28 raid, Griffin’s office interviewed three Chinese women who said they were recruited online, including via social media, to come to the United States from China and do “illicit massage work” in other states before being sent to Hot Springs, according to the news release.
Running multi-state human trafficking operations is an example of China’s “gray zone warfare” against the U.S., Griffin said, naming cyberattacks and fentanyl production and distribution as other examples.
He described Liu as a “mid-level” operative in the suspected broader human trafficking operation but said the information gained from the July raid and Liu’s arrest should “pay dividends” in tracking down more offenders.
Human trafficking prevention has been a shared priority among Griffin, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and the Arkansas Legislature. In October 2023, Griffin held the first statewide Human Trafficking Summit in Little Rock, and a working group convened by Sanders proposed several state-level human trafficking prevention and intervention tactics.
Lawmakers adopted new laws this year related to human trafficking. Act 484 added to the list of places that must post information about the national trafficking hotline, including restrooms in establishments already required to display the information, nail salons and strip clubs. Act 366, adds a five-year enhanced sentence to people who recruit others to trafficking. Act 316 adds trafficking individuals and grooming minors for sex trafficking to the list of sex crimes.
Griffin’s office created the Arkansas Human Trafficking Council alongside the Arkansas State Police and the Department of Human Services, using a $1.5 million grant that the Office for Victims of Crime within the U.S. Department of Justice awarded the state in 2023.
In January, Griffin’s office, the State Police and the Human Trafficking Council launched a new webpage that provides human trafficking victims with county-level resources, including a searchable county-by-county map that victims can use to locate legal services and child advocacy centers, among other things.
On Thursday, Griffin called human traffickers “the lowest of the low” and said “there’s almost no other crime [they] won’t do.”
Liu waived extradition to China and will be brought from Oklahoma to Arkansas to face the charges against him, Griffin said. A Class A felony is punishable by six to 30 years in prison, and a Class B felony by five to 20 years.
Griffin said Liu is one reason to support expanding Arkansas’ prison capacity because “if we don’t have more prison space, these are the kind of guys that walk.”
The Protect Arkansas Act of 2023 removes the possibility of parole for the state’s most serious offenders, among other things. The law will require more prison beds to accommodate a growing inmate population, including 5,000 more beds in the next decade, according to a forecast presented to Arkansas lawmakers Wednesday.
Sanders proposed a 815-acre Franklin County prison site late last year, taking the local community, elected officials and members of the state Board of Corrections by surprise.
