Two Valparaiso women were arrested Wednesday on a preliminary charge of prostitution after Valparaiso Police raided the massage parlor at which they worked.

Booked into the Porter County Jail on a charge of prostitution were Min Ye, 46, and Wenjuan Wen Yao, 44.

According to police, an undercover operation was conducted at the two’s place of employment, Oriental Pain Management Center at 823 Lincolnway, after a woman was denied access to the establishment and, believing “suspicious activities were taking place inside the business,” filed a complaint with the VPD.

Undercover officers were subsequently “offered sex acts in exchange for money,” police said, while advertisements for Oriental Pain Management Center were also found on the Internet.

At 2:15 p.m. Wednesday a search warrant was executed at Oriental Pain Management Center and Ye and Yao were taken into custody.

The Porter County Drug Task Force assisted in the investigation.

Prostitution is a Class A misdemeanor punishable by a term of up to a year in jail.

According to the minutes of an October 2008 meeting of the Valparaiso Site Review Committee, the business manager of Oriental Pain Management Center, John Rodell, told city officials that he and his wife currently operated two massage therapy centers in California and were interested in expanding into the Midwest. He also told officials that he was aware of the city’s definition of “adult business.”

For his part Planning Director Craig Phillips told Rodell that, if Oriental Pain Management Center “is found to be an adult business in the future, the city will take steps to enforce the ordinance.” And any complaints against the business will be pursued, Phillips said.

Rodell informed city officials that “employees are licensed massage therapists,” that each therapist “will have passed a school that requires 500 hours of training,” and that to “ensure there are no criminal records, fingerprinting and identification (are) needed for each city they operate in.”

“Rodell offered assurance that they have passed the necessary requirements pertaining to this,” the minutes stated.

Posted 1/21/2010