SPRINGFIELD — A Sunderland man alleged to have played a role in a massage parlor sex trafficking ring returned to jail after his bail was increased Thursday morning.
Jian Song, 48, was taken back into custody following an arraignment in Hampden County Superior Court. Song was previously held on $50,000 bail, which he was able to post earlier this week.
Song was arraigned with his wife Feng Ling Liu, 50, of Sunderland; Shuzi Li, 52, of West Springfield; and Ting Ting Yin, 26, of New Hyde Park, New York, on charges related to two separate sex trafficking rings.
Liu, Yin and Song face charges of trafficking in persons for sexual servitude, conspiracy to traffic persons for sexual servitude, transacting in laundered money, deriving support from prostitution and keeping a house of ill fame.
Li is charged with trafficking in persons for sexual servitude, transacting in laundered money, deriving support from prostitution and keeping a house of ill fame.
The businesses believed to have served as fronts for the criminal operations consisted of Hadley Massage Therapy in Hadley, Feng Health Center in East Longmeadow, Massage Body Work in Framingham, Pine Spa in Northampton and Agawam Massage Therapy in Agawam.
Yin, Li and Liu were earlier arraigned in Hampshire Superior Court on the charges while Song’s court appearance there has yet to be scheduled. Liu, Yin and Song also are expected to be arraigned in Middlesex County on similar charges. All cases are expected to be heard in Northampton.
The four had been able to post bail before Thursday’s hearing and were being monitored via GPS as part of their conditions of release.
Assistant Massachusetts Attorney General Elizabeth Vasiliades successfully argued to have Song’s bail increased to $100,000 on Thursday, saying that Song faces significant jail time and had left the country in the past seven months.
Song’s Northampton attorney, Colin Keefe, opposed the request, arguing that his client did not have the resources to flee the country, suffered from a serious heart condition and is at risk of dying in jail.
Keefe also argued that Song was “extremely defendable” in that none of the people who paid for alleged sexual acts interviewed interacted with Song.
“He is certainly not the primary perpetrator in this case as Liu and Li are,” Keefe said.
Following the hearing, Keefe said his client “was an innocent husband who had no idea what was going on in his wife’s business.”
Vasiliades disagreed.
“To say he is not a participant is not the case,” she said.
Liu, Song and Liu’s daughter, Yin, were arrested Dec. 13, 2016 in connection with trafficking women between New York and their commercial operations in Hadley, East Longmeadow and Framingham, according to the Massachusetts attorney general’s office.
The probe — spearheaded by the Northampton Police Department and state attorney general’s office — led to the four arrests and identified 10 victims.
While the four were arraigned in succession, Li’s case is unrelated to Liu, Yin and Song’s. Authorities have said the two alleged operations are unconnected, but described them as similar in scope and circumstance.
The victims are women ranging from their mid-20s to mid-50s, authorities said.
They allegedly were transported from the neighborhood of Flushing in the Queens borough of New York City and trafficked for sex acts inside local massage parlors in Massachusetts.
Emily Cutts can be reached at ecutts@gazettenet.com.