MACON, Ga. — Florida police say they have video inside a day spa of the New England Patriots owner, Robert Kraft, approaching prostitutes.
Kraft was formally charged with soliciting prostitution on Monday afternoon.
Authorities believe the victims of sex trafficking were recent Chinese immigrants who were forced to live at the spa.
Sex trafficking, or performing sexual acts inside massage parlors, isn't new to Central Georgia.
About 10 years ago authorities made arrests at over a dozen Macon spas, charging several women with things like "solicitation of prostitution."
Macon Judicial Circuit District Attorney David Cooke says this seems to be less of a problem in 2019.
In the summer of 2008, The Macon Police Department launched "Operation Massage Parlor."
"This is definitely not our first time doing this. We've done it in years past and the massage parlors are a hot topic," Public Information Officer Melanie Hofmann previously told WMAZ.
It resulted in arrests at over a dozen Macon spas.
"Approximately 15 to 20 cases were made during that late June, early July time period," said Macon-Bibb Solicitor Rebecca Grist.
Investigators charged several employees of the spas with things like "keeping a house of prostitution, sodomy, and "masturbation for hire. But not all of the spas were shut down.
"For a long time, the Macon area had an issue with massage parlors and the wrist of human trafficking associated with them," says Cooke.
Cooke lobbied for an ordinance that passed in 2010 requiring Macon spas that provide massages to have a license and licensed massage therapists.
The ordinance said employees must be at least 18 years old and have no convicted felony charges within the last 10 years, or more than two misdemeanors within the last 5.
Cooke says they've made "great strides" since then in curbing human trafficking, a lot of which has shifted to the internet.
Nonetheless, Cooke says he and his team will continue to be vigilant in enforcing the laws, so that the problem doesn't "come back."
"There are signs that there could be prostitution ongoing at some of these places, or at new places, but I'm not aware of any indicators of trafficking right now. We have to continue to be vigilant in enforcing the laws to make sure that there isn't any trafficking," says Cooke.
In an e-mail statement from the Bibb County Sheriff's Office Special Investigations Unit, Lieutenant Mike Kenirey said in part:
"We have not gotten any [recent] complaints of illegal activity and that's what drove the previous investigations-- complaints from citizens and complaints from those involved in the human trafficking awareness sector."
Kenirey says the last massage parlor bust by the Bibb Sheriff's Office happened in 2016, when authorities charged four people at Four Seasons Spa and Paradise Spa in north Macon with offering and condoning sexual acts.