Merrimack Pair Waives Extradition in Sex Trafficking Case

A pair of Merrimack residents arrested over the weekend on warrants related to sex trafficking in New York City waived their rights to extradition hearings in Merrimack's district court Monday afternoon.

Zhan Wei Liu, 30, of 11A East Ridge Road and Bo Xuan Zhang, 33, of the same address, were each charged on Saturday with being fugitives from justice when they were arrested by Merrimack Police. 

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.”

They are wanted in New York on charges of sex trafficking, promoting prostitution, falsifying business records and money laundering.

Judge Gregg Michael spoke with the pair via a Chinese interpreter during their arraignments late Monday afternoon. Both indicated to him that they would prefer to skip probable cause hearings in Merrimack, where they have the right to be represented by an attorney, and return to New York. 

Michael granted the request with a directive for Merrimack Police Prosecutor Melissa Kowalewski that they must be picked up by New York officials within seven days. 

"If they aren't out of here in seven days, I'm dismissing the complaints. I want that to be clear," Michael said.

Merrimack Police Lt. Denise 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. 

Roy said Merrimack police are continuing to investigate the prostitution side of things and she is unsure at this point if there will be further arrests.