As a result of the recording, numerous people were charged with prostitution and the spa was shut down. Sources tell Contact 5 the surveillance video is a few years old, and is not tied to any active cases in South Florida.
The video however, illustrates what detectives might witness while executing a "sneak-and-peek" warrant, a legal record which gives investigators permission to install hidden cameras if they meet certain guidelines. It is the same type of warrant recently used by law enforcement agencies in Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast to capture more than 300 ‘johns’ on camera, allegedly receiving sex acts inside local massage parlors. RELATED: Jupiter spa bust: Search warrants reveal how detectives planted hidden cameras “I think people should be concerned about their privacy, and I think that law enforcement should take every step and every measure possible to ensure a person’s personal privacy is respected.
We would only do a video surveillance like this under the most extraordinary circumstances,” Martin County Sheriff William Snyder told Contact 5’s Merris Badcock during a recent one-on-one interview.
Snyder told Contact 5 this was the first time anyone in his agency had executed a sneak-and-peek warrant. Recently unsealed sneak-and-peek warrants filed in Martin County show detectives hope to use the cameras to captures signs of prostitution and racketeering inside the massage parlors. “There were no covert break-ins by law enforcement to place those cameras.