Ian Hassell quit his job at the Central Intelligence Agency in the fall of 2013 with an audacious goal: dismantling an underground economy of illicit massage parlors engaged in sex trafficking.

In this Series

Parlors of abuse: Our nation’s sex trafficking gauntlet

Updated Jul 7, 2025

How we tackled the sex trafficking investigation

Updated Jul 7, 2025

Women are sex-trafficked in more storefronts than there are McDonald’s. But who’s watching?

Updated Jul 7, 2025

As sex trafficking victims face coercion, rape in illicit parlors, little is done for justice

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