Officials, residents react to State agents raid of 8 massage par - 21 News Now, More Local News for Youngstown, Ohio -

WARREN, Ohio - Joe Bruno, who lives near the Fantacy Spa in Warren, often sees employees standing at its back door.

"They look younger than 16. It's terrible. We got too many young kids on this street that can see a lot of stuff," Bruno said.

BCI's raids on eight spas in Warren came as a relief to nearby residents and those with the Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative who have led a campaign over the past two years raising the concern of human trafficking at those businesses.

Pastor David MacDonald said, "The kinds of women that are attracted or coerced into these places, they are vulnerable populations. They are folks that we're concerned about being trafficked."

Special Agent Cliff Evans with the Northern Ohio BCI unit said the raids are second in a three phase investigation process, emphasizing that it is an open criminal investigation.

"The evidence collected here as well as at the other seven locations is going to lead us, I think, down the path that we want to go and I think we will ultimately be successful," Evans said.

All of the evidence collected from the raids is now at BCI's Youngstown office where it's being organized for analysis.

Boxes upon boxes of items ranging from electronic media to bank statements are set at tables that mark which massage parlor they came from. Evans said that from this point the investigation will determine who faces charges, and what those charges might be.

"From simple sex-oriented type crimes all the way up to human trafficking, money laundering, engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity," Evans said.