3 Arrested at STT Strip Club for Prostitution and Aliens

A.J. Pike

St. Thomas - U.S. law enforcement arrested three members of an alleged conspiracy running a prostitution ring and harboring illegal aliens on St. Thomas. A federal Judge in the District of the Virgin Islands issued a criminal complaint and authorized arrest warrants charging Hussein Jamil, aka Hussian Jamil Suarez, aka Tony, 56; Magda Castro Santos, aka Tatiana, 39; and Julio Hidaldo De Pena, 65; all of St. Thomas, USVI, for their alleged respective roles in a variety of criminal activities centered around an establishment known as Tootsys Gentlemen’s Club in Red Hook, St. Thomas.

According to court documents, Jamil owns and operates Tootsys, a strip club in St. Thomas, which Mr. Jamil, Carlos Santos, and Hidaldo De Pena are alleged to have operated a brothel. The alleged conspirators advertised over Instagram and other platforms to recruit women to work at the strip club. They are alleged to have hired both U.S. citizens and illegal aliens as dancers and sex workers. Mr. Jamil is alleged to have paid for U.S. citizens to fly from elsewhere within the U.S. to St. Thomas, and also financed smuggling operations for aliens to illegally enter the USVI. Most of the dancers working at Tootsys lived in a house on STT rented by Mr. Jamil. Mr. De Pena transported the dancers from the rental house to Tootsys and back for their shifts. Mr. Santos managed the dancers while at the strip club, ensuring they paid their required fees, directing clients to the dancers, and collecting payments for private dances and commercial sex, among other managerial duties. 

When the dancers arrived on STT for the purpose of working at Tootsys, the alleged conspirators’ coercive fee scheme pushed the dancers to make more money by engaging in commercial acts of sex, both at the strip club and through customers “buying out” dancers to take them to an offsite premises. 

The three are charged  with Conspiracy to Transport for Purpose of Prostitution, Conspiracy to Commit Interstate and Foreign Travel or Transportation in aid of Racketeering Enterprises, and Conspiracy to Harbor Aliens for Financial Gain. 

If convicted, they each face a maximum penalty of five years in prison on the first two charges, and ten years in prison for Conspiracy to Harbor Aliens for Financial Gain.

The FBI and Homeland Security Investigations are in the process of continuing to investigate the case. 

The investigation and charges are also supported and prosecuted by JFTA (Joint Task Force Alpha), the Justice Department’s lead effort in combating high-impact human smuggling and trafficking committed by cartels and Transnational Criminal Organizations. 

JFTA is a partnership between the DOJ and DHS. To date, JFTA’s work has resulted in 455 domestic and international arrests of leaders, organizers, and significant facilitators of alien smuggling and/or trafficking; with more than 400 convictions and 350 significant jail sentences imposed, along with forfeitures of substantial assets.