EDMONTON — Three people face charges in connection in Edmonton with Western Canada’s first alleged case of human trafficking.

Edmonton police say three women, one from Beijing and two from Fiji, believed to be the victims were safely removed from an Edmonton business earlier this month after they received a tip about a suspected bawdy house.

Acting with the Canada Border Services Agency and RCMP, police conducted an early-morning search Sept. 5 of Sachi Professional Massage and Spa at 175th Street and 100th Avenue, and an apartment on 69th Avenue and 199th Street of a person connected to the business.

A man and a woman were arrested leaving the business premises, and four women inside were arrested. It’s believed that three of those women, who range in age from 21 to 41, were victims of human trafficking.

“The results were better than we could have hoped,” Edmonton Police Service Insp. Danielle Campbell said at a news conference at Edmonton police headquarters on Thursday. “As a result of these search warrants, there were three women who were rescued from what I believe is modern-day slavery.”

Garry Drummond, a human trafficking awareness co-ordinator with the RCMP, said that the Edmonton charges are the first human trafficking charges to be laid in Western Canada. There have been at least three convictions in Ontario and one in Quebec. “I’m kind of stoked that EPS has the very first charges,” said Drummond. “It’s historic.”

Most people don’t realize human trafficking is going on in Canada and Edmonton. They are just not seeing it, he said.

EPS Det. Dave Schening said the three woman were cheerful but scared when they were rescued. “There was a language barrier,” he said. “They had to bring in an interpreter to assure them they were victims and not in trouble.”

They came to work in the massage industry having answered ads in foreign countries which promised good money, he said.

“They ate, drank and slept in the room they worked in,” he said, alleging they were expected to perform sexual acts 24 hours a day, seven days a week for several weeks.

Their identification documents were taken from them and although they were told they were free to leave, they were also threatened their families would be told what they were doing there so that kept them from leaving, he said.

They come from traditional families. “This is the worse thing that could happen to them,” Schening said.

Mei Fang Chen, 33, and Xiu Zheng Chen, 32, are both charged with trafficking persons, and, along with Qui Wang, 41, are also charged with living on the avails of prostitution, exercising control, direction or influence over a person for the purposes of prostitution, keeping a common bawdy house and possession of proceeds of crime over $5,000.

They are scheduled to appear in court Sept. 21.