Nassau County Police have arrested two Queens women are charged them with prostitution and unauthorized practice after they alleged offered undercover detectives sex for money. The arrests came in an office suite at 450 Jericho Turnpike down the hall from Mineola Youth and Family Services, a non-profit youth agency that offers programs and counseling to children.

Police arrested the two women, ages 57 and 44, both of Flushing, in a suite above the Harry Katz Carpet store. The directory for the suites posted inside the building indicated that Suite 202, where the alleged offense took place, was for acupuncture.

Ron Katz, owner of the property, said he was surprised to hear of the arrest. "They were supposed to be an acupuncture place," he said, adding the tenant was in the suite for 15 months. "They paid their rent on time. They were clean. I never knew what was going on."

Katz said about 10 months ago, a tenant approached him about the possibility that there was more than acupuncture going on in the suite. Katz said he advised the tenant to call the police. "If I had had any indication, I would have called the police myself. I don't need it," he said.

Nassau Police Officer John Larson of the Nassau Problem Oriented Policing (POP) unit said there was an advertisement in a newspaper for acupuncture with a phone number and an address. Larson, who sits on the Mineola Youth and Family Services board, filed a criminal intelligence report for police a few months ago. Larson said the operation was very discreet. "It was amazing how quiet they kept it," he said.

"We made several attempts to go in there and see if they were doing anything in there with negative results," said Detective Sergeant Brian Sweeney of the Nassau County Police Vice Squad.

Sweeney said after Larson called reporting an incident in which a man was coming out of the women's bathroom on the second floor of the building, officers called the phone number and made an appointment for massages. "Two undercover officers went in. They were both given offers for [something] other than massages and we made the arrest," he said.

The charge of unlawful practice came as a result of the defendants allegedly offering a massage without a license.