Hermantown Couple Arrested for Sex Trafficking in Twin Ports

Matthew Shykes and Shuangyen Yang are charged with sex trafficking, racketeering and prostitution of their employees.

DULUTH, Minn.- A sex trafficking ring involving three Twin Ports massage parlors has been busted.

The two owners Hermantown residents Matthew Shykes (59) and Suangyen Yang (49), a married couple, are behind bars for the crime- the victims are their own employees.

And tonight we’re learning disturbing details about how  these women were treated.

Shykes and Yang are charged with sex trafficking, racketeering and prostitution of their employees at Shuangyan’s Spa, Better Massage in Duluth and Soothing Massage in Superior.

Court documents say they got their victims from California, moved them to Minnesota and kept their victims in their own home, making them pay $10 in rent while forcing them to work as much as every day a week for up to 12 hours a day.

According to court documents, at least one victim claimed she was being forced to do sexual acts with clients.

Employees at the Smoke Shop next to Better Massage say the owners were always polite…

But they had questions about the spa’s clientele.

“We did find it kind of strange that men would go and it’d be busier at night… I never saw any women go in there,” Smoke Shop owner Mike Wazwaz said.

The Smoke Shop and Better Massage are a part of a strip mall off Miller Trunk Highway, something Wazwaz said worried him, thinking of all the children’s stores in the surrounding area.

“We have a family strip mall here. We have a toy store here… this is not good for our community,” Wazwaz said.

Investigators found there to be at least 6 to 7 victims at a time. In court documents its made clear that these victims spoke little English and had no source of transportation except for when the owners would drive them from spa to spa.

“People should realize that they have daughters and mothers and wives… Sisters, female cousins, and they would not want that to happen to them,” Wazwaz said.