Investigators have announced the arrests of 18 people as part of a high-end Manhattan drug and prostitution ring that was ramping up ahead of the Super Bowl.
More than a dozen men and women were led out in handcuffs outside the seventh precinct on the Lower East Side Thursday morning.
Sources say they are all accused of organized drug and high-end sex trafficking, even offering so-called “party packs” or combination orders of prostitutes and cocaine to potential clients.
Sources say the group was becoming more active in the last few weeks as they hoped to capitalize on crowds in town for the Super Bowl.
The leader of a campaign against sex trafficking warns prospective sex trade clients of the brutality involved in the illicit industry.
“Someone raped multiple times over the course of the night, to get them ready, to break them. And that’s not an unusual story,” said Judy Harris Kluger of Sanctuary for Families.
One of the buildings allegedly used by the group was less than a block away from Super Bowl Boulevard in Midtown.
The arrests followed an 11-month investigation by the NYPD and U.S. Homeland Security.
Six other people who are said to be involved are still being sought.
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