Merrimack Business Owners Arrested in Connection to Sex Trafficking Investigation in NYC

A pair of Merrimack residents was arrested in town on warrants out of New York City where they are wanted on charges of sex trafficking, promoting prostitution, falsifying business records and money laundering.

According to police, the two New York transplants have owned a business in Merrimack, for at least a few months, called Asian Massage at 416 Daniel Webster Highway, which is also being investigated for “related offenses.”

“We are looking into the prostitution end of it,” Lt. Denise Roy said Monday afternoon.

Police on Saturday, Sept. 7, arrested Zhan Wei Liu, 30, of 11A East Ridge Road and Bo Xuan Zhang, 33, of the same address, charging each with being a fugitive from justice.

Roy said the Merrimack Police Department was made aware of the couple when they were contacted a couple weeks ago by the Kings County New York District Attorney. Merrimack opened an investigation here in conjunction with the investigation in New York City, and according to police, evidence recovered in both locations led to the arrests.

Roy said the arrests Merrimack Police made coincided with several other arrests in New York.

Both suspects were taken into custody without incident and Liu and Zhang were held through the weekend in Valley Street Jail, each on $500,000 cash-only bail. They are set to be arraigned this afternoon. Roy said arraignment was delayed in order to find a translator.

Roy said New York is planning to extradite the couple from New Hampshire. She is unsure at this point if there will be further arrests made in Merrimack.