ROCKLAND – A New York man who is the owner of the Asian Massage Parlor in Rockland and is suspected of sex trafficking is being held without bail on a charge of obstruction of justice at the Cumberland County Jail in Portland by the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Tian Tao, 54, was arrested Feb. 20 on a charge of sex trafficking on a warrant obtained by the Rockland Police Department. Rockland Police detectives, with the assistance of the Kennebec County Sheriff Office, Gardiner Police Department and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, arrested Tao in Gardiner.

Throughout Rockland’s investigation they had been working with the Kennebec County Sheriff’s Office since they had been investigating Tao’s operation of Asian Massage in Randolph, according to the affidavit for the arrest warrant filed by Rockland Police in Knox County Court.   

After Tao was arrested, he was transported by Homeland Security to the Cumberland County Jail since the federal department has jurisdiction, and is the primary law enforcement agency, responsible for investigating interstate sex trafficking, said Rockland Police.

As of Feb. 27, a court date had not yet been scheduled for the obstruction of justice charge.

Rockland Police also stated in their affidavit that Tao was operating an Asian Massage parlor in Fairfield.

The investigation of Tao initially began in September 2023 when a detective from the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office suspected sex trafficking at Waldoboro Asian Massage in Waldoboro.

The business was listed on a sex guide website and its site gave the approximate age and breast size of the Asian women who gave the massages, according to the court affidavit.

The telephone number for the Waldoboro business, which had the same number as the one in Rockland, was registered to Tao. 

Rockland Police then learned that the establishment in question, Asian Massage, had since moved from Waldoboro to Rockland.

They began surveillance of the business in September and uncovered sexual acts were being done there in exchange for money.

The affidavit noted that the surveillance showed two Asian women were at the business and they rarely left the establishment.

Photographs of the women were taken during the surveillance, and one is suspected of being a Chinese national, according to the court affidavit.

Police obtained a search warrant from Knox County Court on Dec. 10, 2024, to search an outside trash can used by the business.

Police searched it in the evenings of Dec. 11 and Dec. 12 recovering tissues with bodily fluids on them, as well as written notes, determined to be Chinese characters, from multiple trash bags.

On Dec. 19, Rockland Police, with assistance from agents from Homeland Security, executed a search warrant on the spaced leased by Asian Massage in Rockland. During the search, multiple individuals were interviewed, and physical and electronic evidence seized, some of which is still being processed by Homeland Security.

Since the search warrant, the establishment is no longer active in Rockland. 

As a result of the investigation, 11 Maine men were issued summonses for allegedly engaging a person for prostitution following an investigation into human trafficking at a massage parlor in Rockland. They are expected to appear in Knox County Court for their initial appearances in March.

District Attorney Natasha Irving said in an interview aired Jan. 28 on WMTV 8 ABC news that a female who was working and living at Asian Massage was a victim of sex trafficking.

"The victim in this case didn't know where she was. She didn't know how long she had been here," the district attorney said, in the Channel 8 interview. "She was living at the establishment, and none of her documents were recovered at the establishment, so those are the signs that say to us that this is a survivor of human trafficking."

Irving said during the interview that the wider scope of this human trafficking ring is what concerns her most. The district attorney said women are being scammed into believing there are legitimate jobs waiting for them in the United States, according to the WMTV 8 interview.

"They are being scammed. They are victims of crime. They are victims of fraud," Irving had said. "Bringing them into this country under false pretenses to work in the sex industry," Irving also said in the interview.

Irving said prosecutors are working with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to try and locate the man they suspect as being the ringleader of the human trafficking operation, according to WMTV 8.

Reach Sarah Shepherd at news@penbaypilot.com