BURLINGTON, Mass. (WWLP) – A man from Burlington was sentenced to prison in connection with robbing two Massachusetts spas at gunpoint, and duct-taped victims.
According to the Department of Justice in Boston, in June 2022 Li Wen Tang entered the Balance Reflexology Spa in Brookline pretending to be a customer seeking a massage. Because the victim was the only employee in the spa that night, she locked the door before taking Tang into the back room to begin the massage.
Tang said he no longer wanted a massage and demanded a refund. The employee called her boss to approve the refund. While she was on the phone in the lobby, Tang unlocked the front door, and two masked men, later identified as Alfeu Barbosa and Jonas Nunez, entered the business carrying firearms.
Once inside the business, one of the men hit the employee in the face, knocking her to the floor and putting a gun to her head. Barbosa and Nunez then pulled the victim by her hair into the back hallway, bound her wrists and ankles with duct tape, and gagged her. The men ransacked the spa and found approximately $500 along with the victim’s cell phone and left. Surveillance video showed all three men drive away together.
On the same night, Barbosa, Nunez, and another person committed a similar robbery of May’s Spa Massage in Stoneham. They entered the business wearing masks and firearms and duct-taped several victims who were in the spa at the time. They stole approximately $600, three cell phones, a person’s license, gift cards, and credit and debit cards from the business and victims. They were seen leaving in the same vehicle.
Barbosa was arrested in June 2022 and in March 2024 he was convicted of two counts of robbery affecting commerce. He was sentenced on Wednesday in Boston federal court to 121 months in prison and three years of supervised release.
At the time of the robberies, Barbosa was wearing a court-ordered GPS ankle bracelet due to a suspended sentence for armed robbery and assault and battery for robbing the De Onzen Spa in Waltham in July 2021. During that robbery, Barbosa threatened employees and patrons at knifepoint, stole their phones, and punched one victim in the face causing an orbital fracture.
Nunez was sentenced to 23 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. Tang is scheduled to be sentenced on August 9th.
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