GRANTS PASS, Ore. - An ongoing Grants Pass Police Department (GPPD) investigation involving commercial sexual solicitation at a local massage parlor resulted in several arrests during a Thursday multi-jurisdictional law enforcement operation. The operation was a cooperative effort between GPPD Detectives, the Southern Oregon Child Exploitation Team (SOCET) and the Rogue Area Drug Enforcement team (RADE). Human trafficking concerns were further developed during this ongoing criminal investigation at the Silk Road Massage parlor located on the 1500 block of NE Seventh Street in Grants Pass.
Arrested during the raid was Wei Zhang, 58 of Grants Pass, charged with promoting prostitution. Kul Assavaphoom, 41 also of Grants pass was cited and released for prostitution. During the raid a customer, Yhang Zhao, 52 was found with a US Marshal warrant out of Virginia and was lodged in the Josephine County Jail. The business was owned by Min Zhang, 48 of Grants Pass.
We greatly value our community partnerships and would like to thank the Women’s Crisis Support Team in Grants Pass who assisted with victim advocacy.
SOCET is a joint inter-agency task force that started in June of 2020 to combat child exploitation and human trafficking. The task force consists of investigators from Jackson County Sheriff’s Office (JCSO), Medford Police Department (MPD), GPPD, Oregon State Police (OSP), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); and prosecutors from our local, state and federal law enforcement partners in Jackson and Josephine County.