Illicit spa owner busted with $600K stuffed inside giant teddy bear during NJ prostitution raid
It was a fuzzy front.The owner of an illicit New Jersey spa was busted on prostitution charges after police raided her racy business and home — seizing luxury goods, a Tesla and a teddy bear stuffed with $600,000 in cash.Daniela Diienno, 47, and four other women were arrested Thursday when cops stormed Bliss Spa in Edison in a coordinated takedown following a yearlong undercover operation, NJ.com reported.The probe also targeted Diienno’s home, where detectives seized $650,000 in cash — including the hefty sum sewn shut inside the cuddly toy — a 2025 Tesla Model Y and Rolex and Cartier watches, police said.Authorities also recovered an additional $104,373 from the spa owner’s bank accounts — making it the largest asset seizure in the township’s history.“This operation is a direct result of the commitment and coordination between departments and agencies that have worked tirelessly to target and dismantle organized criminal enterprises operating under the guise of legitimate business,” Edison Police Chief Tom Bryan said in a statement.
“The amount of cash seized and the elaborate concealment methods used to show just how sophisticated and profitable these illegal operations can be.We will continue our efforts to rid our community of these establishments.”Police also arrested Vanessa Bosada, 30, of Maspeth, New York; Eduardo Beilfus, 26, of Newark; Maria Palacios, 45 of Yonkers, New York; and Alisson Cunningham, 26, of Roselle, Patch reported.
They were each charged with engaging in or soliciting prostitution and released on summonses.It wasn’t immediately clear the role the four women played in the prostitution ring.
Diilenno was hit with first-degree money laundering, second-degree promoting organized street crime, third-degree promoting prostitution and fourth-degree maintaining a house of prostitution, police said.She was being held at the Middlesex County Adult Correction Center pending a detention hearing, the outlets reported.The spa�...