Tren de Aragua May Pimp Immigrant Women at New York’s ‘Market of Sweethearts’: Cops

New York police are investigating whether the deadly Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is pimping women into Queens’ “Lovers’ Market,” where dozens of prostitutes this week bravely plied their trade in defiance of law enforcement crackdowns.

When The Post visited on Tuesday evening, it was business as usual on the notorious sex corridor along Roosevelt Avenue in Jackson Heights, less than a week after the New York Police and State Police launched an operation to combat the scourge of human trafficking sexual activity, which increased with the migrant influx into the city.

Even as 30 officers patrolled the area, a fiery redhead in a sequined top brazenly offered a Post reporter “$100 for sex” on 76th Street, cooing that the good times would last “40 minutes” and include oral sex.

Suddenly she felt the scribe, then focused her attention on scruffy John holding a wad of bills.

Two blocks away, outside a closed doctor’s office, a curvy, Spanish-speaking prostitute in a tight T-shirt cooed, “$100, baby. The service covers everything.”

When asked if she or three other scantily clad girls on the street knew about Tren de Aragua, she replied, “What? No” and shook her head.

But across the street, a pair of men dressed head-to-toe in black, red and white Chicago Bulls jerseys and shorts – the trademark colors of the migrant gang that made its way to the Big Apple – appeared to be monitoring the woman’s situation.

Later, another man wearing a white Michael Jordan jersey – with the number 23, another gang symbol – was seen near 75th Street. Police say the gang often wears Chicago Bulls clothing because of the team’s colors.

Investigators identified Tren de Aragua members with suspected prostitutes on Roosevelt Avenue in videos that gang members posted on social media, Deputy Commissioner for Operations Kaz Daughtry said this week.

“How did we identify them?” he asked. “They had a hat – a 23 Bulls hat. They had a tattoo of 23. They wore red and white clothes. That’s what our gang experts say. . . either they are part of the TDA group or cooperate with TDA.”

The women “don’t look like they were being held against their will,” said Daughtry, who admitted the women “were sexually assaulted.”

Supporters said The Post’s gang members were targeting women staying in the city’s migrant shelters.

Taina Bien-Aime, who heads the Coalition Against Sex Trafficking in Women, said Venezuelan gangsters are “recruiting very actively.” Her account was supported by a nonprofit shelter worker in Queens who did not want to be identified or quoted out of concern for her safety.

“I heard from the Department of Homeland Security in New York that a woman on Roosevelt (Avenue) had $1,000 worth of quotas to fill every day,” Bien-Aime said. “There is a penalty for not meeting the limit.”

Pimps “beat them or refuse to eat them,” said the longtime activist.

That’s why she and other advocates are urging police to go after people who buy sex.

“You want public safety, focus on the boys,” she said. “No buyers, no market.”

The NYPD said it was focusing on Johns but could provide arrest data until “the operation is complete.”

Roosevelt Avenue was “out of control,” said a recently retired deputy detective who worked on the street for years.

“I’ve never seen anything like it, and I’ve been talking about it for many years. You see kids passing by there. It’s terrible.”

He said pimps particularly prey on immigrant women, and many prostitutes are tricked and trapped.

“When these girls come here, they are promised a job at the restaurant and this is one of the places they are dropped off at,” he said. “They call it the center. These girls are mostly forced to do it. It’s sad.”

The MS-13 and Sureños gangs traditionally “run the show there,” he said, adding that Tren de Aragua is now fighting for “a piece of the pie.”

The problem is made worse by the soft-on-crime policy that began under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, he said.

“In the de Blasio era, things really changed and that opened the door to a real mess,” he said.

The number of pimps has skyrocketed recently, according to one transgender prostitute who says she has been working in the alley for about 15 years.

“Because of the recent wave of migrants, so many men are taking over street corners,” said a hustler with orange hair.

On 88th Street, a blonde told a reporter it would be “$100 for a chica chica” and gave him her number before leading him up the stairs between the dentist’s office and hair salon to a dimly lit second-floor spa.

Moans could be heard from one of the four curtained massage beds.

“Okay, honey, come on,” the madam said, nudging the reporter toward the massage bed and repeating, “$100 a damn, everything.”

At this point, the reporter started to leave, which caused the lady to protest.

“What happened?” – she asked, shouting: “Don’t call me again!”

Additional reporting by Georgette Roberts.