FORT BEND COUNTY, Texas – The Red Apple massage parlor is just another business in a small strip center in the 11300 block of Highway 6 at W. Airport Road.
It sits next to a donut shop, a restaurant and a beauty shop.
Fort Bend County sheriff’s investigators said they were selling a lot more than backrubs at the parlor.
Just after lunchtime Wednesday, deputies forced their way inside the business, battering down an inner door to get into the massage parlor's back rooms.
They went in after one of the women who they said offered sex for money.
The massage parlor is situated in a nondescript shopping center on Highway 6.
Neighbors noticed an unusually high number of men coming and going over the last few months.
A worker at the beauty shop next door said she never saw any female customers.
“She says she went there, tried to get a massage, and they say they don’t take women," the worker said.
The sheriff said it was a front for prostitution.
Three female employees were detained.
"I want to do everything I can to find out who owns this strip center and shut this place down. I don’t want to leave here and, all of a sudden, this place is open next week," Sheriff Troy Nehls said.
Nehls said he conducted the raid in response to complaints from neighbors who live nearby.
The owner of a deli restaurant next door says it was bad for business.
The sheriff’s department contacted the shopping center owner who agreed the massage parlor won’t be allowed to reopen.
Investigators said they’re satisfied this was not part of a human trafficking operation.
The three women who were detained, all legal immigrants, won’t be charged, deputies said.