The NYPD is investigating if the deadly Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is pimping women in Queens’ “Market of Sweethearts” — where dozens of prostitutes boldly plied their trade this week in defiance of a law-enforcement crackdown.
It was business as usual on the notorious sex corridor along Roosevelt Avenue in Jackson Heights when The Post visited Tuesday night, less than a week after the NYPD and State Police kicked off their operation to fight the scourge of sex trafficking that has soared with the migrant influx to the city.
Even as 30 officers patrolled the area, a fiery red-head in a sequined top brazenly offered a Post reporter “$100 for sexo” on 76th Street, cooing that the good times would last “40 minutes” and would include oral sex.
She suddenly groped the scribe before turning her attention to a scraggly john holding out a wad of cash.
Two blocks away, in front of a closed medical office, a curvy Spanish-speaking prostitute in a tube top cooed, “$100 my love. The service covers everything.”
Asked whether she or a trio of other skimpily-dressed girls on the block knew about Tren de Aragua, she replied, “What? No,” and shook her head.
Yet across the street, a pair of men wearing head-to-toe black, red and white Chicago Bulls shirts and shorts — the trademark colors of the migrant gang that has made its way to the Big Apple — appeared to be keeping tabs on the women.
Later, another man wearing a white Michael Jordan jersey — bearing the number 23, another gang sign — was seen near 75th Street. The gang frequently wears Chicago Bulls clothing because of the team’s colors, police said.
Investigators have identified Tren de Aragua members with suspected hookers on Roosevelt Avenue in videos gang members have posted on social media, Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry said this week.
“How’d we identify them?” he asked. “They had the hat on – the 23 Bulls hat. They had the 23 tattoo. They had the red and white clothing that they were wearing. So our gang experts are saying that . . . either they’re part of the TDA group or they’re working with TDA.”
The women “don’t look like they’re being held against their will,” said Daughtry, who acknowledged the women were “being sexually exploited.”
Advocates told The Post gang members target women in city migrant shelters.
Taina Bien-Aime, who runs the Coalition Against Sex Trafficking in Women, said the Venezuelan gangsters “recruit very actively.” Her account was backed by a non-profit worker in a Queens shelter who didn’t want to be identified or quoted out of fear for her safety.
“I heard from Homeland Security in New York that a woman on Roosevelt [Avenue] had $1,000 worth of quotas to fill everyday,” said Bien-Aime. “There’s a punishment if you don’t meet your quota.”
The pimps “beat them or refuse to give them food,” the long-time activist said.
That’s why she and other advocates urge the cops to go after the sex buyers.
“You want public safety, focus on the guys,” she said. “No buyers, no market.”
The NYPD has said it’s focused on Johns but could provide data on arrests until “completion of the operation.”
Roosevelt Avenue is “out of control,” said one recently retired vice-squad detective who worked the strip for years.
“I never saw it like this and I’m talking about over many year. You see kids walking through there. It’s terrible.”
He said pimps prey on migrant women in particular, and that many sex workers are duped and trapped.
“When these girls come here, they’re promised restaurant jobs and this is one of the spots where they’re dropped off,” he said. “They call it the hub. These girls are mostly forced into this. It’s sad.”
The gangs MS-13 and the Sureños have traditionally “run the show there,” he said, adding that Tren de Aragua is now fighting for “a piece of the pie.”
The problem is exacerbated by soft-on-crime policies that started under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, he said.
“During the de Blasio era, things really changed and all that opened up the doors for things to really be a mess,” he said.
The number of pimps has spiked recently, said one transgender prostitute who said she had been working the avenue for about 15 years.
“Because of the recent migrant wave there have been so many men that are taking over the street corners,” the hustler with orange hair said.
On 88th Street, a blonde madam told a reporter it would be “$100 for chica chica” and gave him her number, before leading him up a set of stairs between the dentist office and a hair salon into a dimly lit, second-floor spa.
Moaning could be heard from one of the four curtained-off massage beds.
“It’s O.K., baby, c’mon,” the madam said, while nudging the reporter to a massage bed and repeating “$100 for sucky sucky, everything.”
At that point, the reporter began to leave, prompting protests from the madam.
“What happened?” she questioned, shouting: “Don’t call me again!”
Additional reporting by Georgett Roberts.
Read the full article here
