A Retired NYPD Officer Pleads Guilty to Running a Prostitution Ring
The operation used its intimate knowledge of NYPD operations to thrive.
A former New York detective has pleaded guilty to running a major prostitution and gambling ring.
As Reason previously reported, several current and former New York Police Department (NYPD) officers were involved in the operation. Seven current members—three sergeants, two detectives, and two police officers—were arrested and stripped of their badges. The leaders of the operation were retired NYPD detective Ludwig Paz and his wife, Arelis Peralta, who is a former prostitute.
On Tuesday, both Paz and Peralta pleaded guilty. Paz also pleaded to attempted enterprise corruption and promoting prostitution, and he forfeited $20,840 in profits. Following his sentencing in June, he could possibly spend up to 12 years in prison. Peralta pleaded to corruption and was sentenced to spend less than a year in jail.
With allies on the force—and with an intimate knowledge of NYPD procedures—the police brothel survived for at least four years, and perhaps nearly a decade. And it thrived: A three-year Internal Affairs Bureau probe found that the operation brought in $2 million in a single year.
At times, prostitutes provided sex and massages to NYPD officers as a reward for their work on the streets.
Bonus links: Paz is not the first NYPD officer to run a prostitution ring. Reason's Elizabeth Nolan Brown has done extensive research on officers who have either solicited prostitution or ran their own operations.
