A Revere woman has been indicted for allegedly operating a day spa in the city as a front for a human sex trafficking operation. Two of her employees, both men who live in Massachusetts, are facing sexual assault charges.
Geralda De Matos Garland, 57, is accused of using Crystal’s Day Spa in Revere as a human trafficking front, Attorney General Maura Healey announced Friday.
De Matos Garland was indicted Thursday on two counts of trafficking of persons for sexual servitude, keeping a house of ill fame and money laundering. Her employees, Lucas Sobreira, 29, of Everett, and Giacomo Neto, 41, of Lynn, were indicted on charges of indecent assault and battery on a person over 14 and assault and battery. All three will be arraigned at a later date.
Garland was arrested in April 2021 by state police, Revere police and Department of Homeland Security Investigations. These charges are the result of their investigation, along with the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office.
Get New England news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NECN newsletters.
Authorities found evidence that Garland allegedly ran a profitable and organized criminal enterprise through Crystal’s Day Spa, which she owned and set up as a front for human trafficking.
The attorney general alleges that Garland knowingly facilitated commercial sexual activity by recruiting victims and offering sexual activity between victims and buyers in exchange for a fee. Prosecutors also said Garland posted online advertisements offering commercial sex, arranged commercial sex appointments with sex buyers, collected money from sex buyers and profited from this commercial sexual activity.
The attorney general alleges that in 2018, Sobreira allegedly sexually assaulted an individual at Crystal’s Day Spa. In 2021, Neto is alleged to have sexually assaulted two different individuals on separate occasions at the establishment. The victims were not aware Crystal’s Day Spa offered illegal commercial sex.
