AROMATHERAPY DENS RAIDED TEN WOMEN ARRESTED IN PROSTITUTION STING OPERATION.

Byline: Ryan Oliver Staff Writer

Two strip mall businesses suspected of operating as prostitution dens in the northwestern San Fernando Valley were shut down Friday in undercover stings by Los Angeles police.

LAPD Vice detectives arrested 10 women during the raid. Officials said these illegal operations are proliferating across the Valley at an alarming rate.

``In the last year, it has skyrocketed from six to 36 known sites,'' said Detective Rick McElroy, acting vice commander for LAPD's Valley Bureau. ``All of a sudden, the floodgates opened, and it's popping up everywhere.''

At 3:45 p.m., an undercover officer entered Topanga Therapy at 10116 Topanga Canyon Blvd., which is licensed with the city as a holistic therapy business. The detective was then offered sex for money by one of the employees in a back room, police said.

Officers waiting outside the business entered after the undercover detective paged them with a signal. Three scantily clad Korean women were arrested in the back rooms, in addition to two older women working at the front desk.

Two men inside the rooms with the women were given warnings and released.

Police later raided Caesar's aromatherapy at 16205 Parthenia St., where five more women were taken into custody. About 50 to 60 condoms were found hidden in a vending machine, McElroy said.

The suspects were held on suspicion of allegations that included prostitution, operating a house of ill fame and residing in a house of ill fame.

McElroy said aromatherapy shops have recently become the most popular front for prostitution dens because the city has few rules regulating them.

``This is nothing but prostitution, which brings AIDS and other quality-of-life problems to the Valley,'' he said.