A Chinese national will be deported to China after serving her sentence, following federal authorities’ accusations that she and three others operated a sex trafficking ring disguised as massage parlors in Pennsylvania.
The agency said that Zhao had entered the United States illegally and was placed in removal proceedings following her transfer into the agency’s custody.
At the time of writing, Zhao was being held at the Moshannon Valley ICE Processing Center in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania, according to ICE’s locator system.
The Epoch Times couldn’t contact Zhao’s lawyer for comment.
The four were indicted on charges of conspiracy, human trafficking, immigration violations, and money laundering.
The indictment accuses Qiu, Lin, and Zhao of establishing, owning, and managing “business enterprises involving prostitution, including Sunny Spa, Point Spa, and Fun Spot, purporting said business enterprises to be legitimate massage parlors.”
Qin, Liu, and Zhao also allegedly “kept, harbored, or controlled non-citizens as sex workers in violation of immigration reporting requirements under federal human trafficking statutes,” prosecutors said.
The illicit business started in November 2023 and continued until Jan. 20 of this year, according to prosecutors.
In June, Zhao withdrew her not-guilty plea and pleaded guilty.
Zhao’s lawyer, in a sentencing memorandum filed in June, asked the court to sentence her to time served, 140 days, noting that she had been incarcerated since Jan. 28.
“It is beyond discussion that this is a serious offense and Ms. Zhao accepts responsibility for her actions,” the lawyer wrote.
He argued that his client, who was “awaiting a determination on her asylum application,” “does not constitute a future danger to the public in the United States” once she were deported.
On June 17, U.S. District Judge Susan Baxter sentenced Zhao to time served without any supervised release period.
Qiu and Lin have pleaded not guilty.
Another Chinese national was sentenced earlier this year on a similar crime.
In March, U.S. District Judge Anne M. Nardacci of the Northern District of New York sentenced Xie Qingqin to 16 months in prison on one count of Travel Act violation.
Xie, who did not have lawful status in the United States, was arrested in August 2025 and charged with using interstate facilities of commerce to manage a business enterprise engaged in prostitution, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York.
Xie operated these “illicit massage businesses” disguised as “legitimate spas” from July 2023 to August 2025, according to the plea agreement.
