NYPD links Tren de Aragua to rise in prostitution in Queens

Several weeks ago, this media outlet reported the numerous complaints from neighbors on Roosevelt Avenue, in Queens, regarding a significant increase in prostitution in the area. According to the local residents, businesses were disappearing and being replaced by illegal brothels.

Now, the New York Police Department (NYPD) is investigating the relationship between this increase in prostitution and the Venezuelan criminal gang Tren de Aragua.

This investigation, reported by The New York Post, suggests that the criminal gang is trafficking dozens of women, many of Hispanic origin, on Roosevelt Avenue.

According to local press reports, despite the increased police presence in the area, the number of women offering sex for money in the Jackson Heights area remains significant.

The rates have not varied either and are predefined at around $100 for 40 minutes. Many of them are reportedly immigrants, arriving in New York from the south and with few resources to engage in another trade.

A few feet away from the women, several men surveil the activity on the streets. They are dressed from head to toe, the Post reports, in Tren de Aragua's colors: black, white and red.

Investigators have identified members of Tren de Aragua with alleged prostitutes on Roosevelt Avenue in videos that gang members have posted on social media, NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry reported this week.

"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."

$1,000 a day

Taina Bien-Aime, who heads the Coalition Against the Sex Trafficking of Women, told the Post that Venezuelan gang members "recruit very actively."

"I heard from Homeland Security in New York that a woman on Roosevelt [Avenue] had $1,000 worth of quotas to fill everyday," Bien-Aime added to the media outlet. "There’s a punishment if you don’t meet your quota." Pimps "beat them or refuse to give them food."

Sex trafficking is one more form of income for Tren de Aragua, which is becoming one of the fastest-growing criminal gangs in the entire country, to the point of creating enormous tension with the native criminal gangs of the United States.