Nassau County Police arrested a Flushing woman on charges of practicing unlicensed massage at a Great Neck spa weeks last week after a sting operation in Great Neck Plaza led to the arrest for another Flushing masseuse on prostitution charges.
Junshu Li, 40, allegedly performed the massage on an undercover detective while inside Foot Spa on Northern Boulevard at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, March 20.
Li was arrested and charged with unauthorized practice of a crime, and was arraigned the next day in Hempstead’s 1st District Court.
The arrest was one of the latest in a string of undercover operations that have led to prostitution or unlicensed massage charges in Nassau County. Police have announced six such stings since March 20.
A spokesperson for the Nassau County Police Department would not discuss details of the operations when asked about the stings in February, citing the need to avoid tipping off businesses under investigation.
The arrest is the second in Great Neck within a month.
An undercover officer arrested Jingkun Zhang, 42, in February after allegedly being offered a sex act in a massage parlor operating as a sublet in the basement of Bond Street hair salon Joseph & Company.
That massage business was not on the radar of Village of Great Neck Plaza officials and was operating without a permit from the village, which passed a law in 2011 to crack down on unlicensed massage parlors, Village of Great Neck Plaza Mayor Jean Celender said following Zhang’s arrest.
“This should be a wake up call to the hair and nail salons that if they are going to try to maximize their space in there, they need different tenants to help pay the rent, they need to be sure who they’re putting in there,” Celender said after the February arrest. “It’s not good for the legitimate part of the business. They should be more mindful of who they’re leasing to.”
Joseph Pugliese, the salon’s owner, told the Great Neck News he had no knowledge of any illegal activity and that the operator of the massage had subleased space in his salon’s basement.
