Five NH Massage Parlors Eyed for Closure

DERRY — Over the last two weeks, Derry officials have forced five spa/massage parlors to close their doors, citing licensing concerns and misleading advertisements.

Town Council issued cease and desist orders shortly after the businesses applied for license renewals with the town in March, which led to further investigation into business operations.

“In the process of renewing many of the massage parlors and spas, we conducted some investigation into the advertising being used and what we found was a couple of violations,” said Michael Fowler, incoming town administrator. “Many times, a single practitioner is licensed there and we discover that there were multiple individuals advertised or operating at that facility.”

The businesses include Ying Cui’s Orange Orange, 37 Crystal Ave.; Yulan Zhou’s Wei Lan Bodywork & Spa, 49 Birch St.; Yang Jiao’s Orange Tree Spa, 92 West Broadway; Jingai Wu’s Asian Spa Massage & Bodywork, 34 Manchester Rd.; and Ling Gan Yuan’s Star Day Spa, 4 Peabody Rd. Annex.

Additionally, Cui failed to disclose a felony prostitution conviction in 2022 on her state application for a license. Derry was not alerted to the conviction until she attempted to renew her license in March, when she disclosed the felony.

Business owners had 10 days to file an appeal with Town Council, which upheld the decision to permanently rescind the licenses of Orange Orange and Wei Lan Bodywork & Spa on April 5 and April 15. The other three businesses did not appeal the council’s decision.

Three still operating

Fowler said those three continue to operate, despite receiving two cease and desist orders. Next steps are to seek legal counsel and bring a case to Superior Court for failure to cede to local zoning and licensing procedures, he said.

“The Town of Derry instituted an ordinance back in 2023 to regulate massage parlors and other associated businesses,” Fowler said. “It was a new process which required the owners and/or the practitioners to obtain a license from the Town of Derry and embedded within that, they had to show proof of a valid state license as a massage therapist as well.”

The ordinance change allows the town to dive deeper into the business and set certain parameters for operations.

Before 2023, spa/massage parlor owners looking to move into a vacant retail space in Derry would only need to go through the change of use process and provide the town with their state license.

“Derry had not had many of these establishments 10 years ago. This was definitely an opportunity they were exploiting,” Fowler continued. “We’re looking to tighten up our regulations, look at the licenses with a fine-tooth comb and work through that. We have several legitimate therapeutic spas that operate in Derry and we feel badly that we’ve had to put them through a local licensure process in order to regulate some of the others.”

No secure vetting process

Without a secure vetting process at the state level for some of these business owners, felons can slip through the cracks if they themselves choose not to disclose their conviction status from the past 10 years, Fowler said, which is what happened with Cui.

“For whatever reason at the state level, either staffing or otherwise, I’m not sure, but if you go on the state website, there’s no record of what happened in Delaware,” Fowler said. “The fact that an investigation wasn’t done at the state level, that’s a very difficult pill for us to swallow.”

In 2022, Cui, who opened her spa in Derry and listed herself as the sole practitioner in 2024, was arrested and charged in Delaware with felony promoting prostitution third degree, conspiracy second degree, operating an unlicensed massage establishment and prostitution, according to the Delaware Department of Justice.

Her spa in Wilmington, Spa Wellness, was one of three illicit massage establishments shut down in February 2022 in the first month of the state’s first Human Trafficking Unit. She purchased the property that became Spa Wellness as soon as the former spa, New Sky Spa, closed.

“These were businesses that hundreds of people passed by each day without realizing the abuse that was happening behind their doors,” said Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings in a statement at the time of the raids. “In many cases, the defendants are fly-by-night serial business owners who will set up a new front as soon as one is shut down.”

Another reaching out

Already, another Asian spa owner has contacted the Town of Derry, looking to move into Cui’s defunct Crystal Avenue property, Fowler said.

“Many of these come from New York City,” Fowler said.

Fowler declined to comment on whether Derry or state police are investigating Cui’s business in Derry, or any of the others, for criminal activity, like prostitution or human trafficking.

At an emergency meeting on April 5, Cui, with the help of an interpreter, pleaded with town councilors to be allowed to continue to operate her business, saying she had hired an advertising agency to create the misleading ad, and had since removed it.

“There is a provision, if you are arrested and convicted of a sexual-related crime, you are not eligible for a (business) license,” said Code Enforcement Officer Robert Mackey. “Based on those points, I’m asking the council to uphold the decision to permanently rescind her license.”

At the state level, legislators are considering House Bill 405, which looks to establish a commission to study human trafficking within illicit massage businesses, prostitution and related offenses.

“It’s really difficult for a community, even of Derry’s size, to have a number of establishments which we have questions about the licensures and the procedures and techniques being used,” Fowler said. “Those things are definitely on the minds of our staff and quite honestly, it’s a burden for us to have to tackle this without any assistance at the state level.”