Police shutter alleged Jackson Heights brothel
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NYPD officers raid an alleged brothel operating at 37-45 75th St. in Jackson Heights. Photo via Restore Roosevelt Avenue
By Noah Powelson
An alleged brothel that operated across the street from a Queens city councilmember’s office was shuttered Thursday after residents called on the city to crack down on prostitution in the area.
The NYPD raided and padlocked a brothel operating at 37-45 75th St. in Jackson Heights on Oct. 28 after locals had been calling the city to take action for about a month. The brothel operated just off of Roosevelt Avenue, and its closure represents a renewed effort by the city to address prostitution and narcotics in the commercial hub, according to the NYPD.
According to a police spokesperson, the location was shut down and padlocked after the NYPD’s Vice Enforcement Division investigated prostitution in the area. After a court found the building was in violation of New York’s nuisance abatement law, a Queens Supreme Court justice issued a restraining order and ordered the building closed.
Police shuttered the building around 6:20 p.m. on Oct. 28.
The spokesperson also said that on the following day, 13 unnamed individuals were also arrested for patronizing a sex worker in the vicinity of Roosevelt Avenue and 87th Street.
The raid followed two protests held outside the storefront by The Restore Roosevelt Avenue coalition, founded by Queens district leader and former State Senator Hiram Monserrate. Monserrate told the Eagle they had been aware of the brothel operating in the area for a little over a month, and that it had been operating nearly around the clock.
“We want to thank the NYPD for acting on our complaints,” Monserrate said in a statement. “There are many more places to be shut down and many streets that need more policing. We will continue to monitor, hold rallies and call out those in authority until this community is safer for everyone.”
The brothel, which was in a building right across the street from Councilmember Shekar Krishnan’s office in Jackson Heights, had been raided once before by police in October, but the raid appeared to have done little to disrupt operations.
Krishnan told the Eagle his office was aware of concerns neighbors expressed regarding the activities around 37-45 75th St., and worked with NYPD to get the brothel shut down.
“Our office cares deeply about the safety of our neighbors,” Krishnan said in a statement. “We’ve heard concerns from many neighbors about this location, and we worked closely with law enforcement to shut it down.”
The Restore Roosevelt Avenue coalition regularly tracks and reports alleged prostitution rings operating throughout the neighborhood, but Monserrate said the 75th Street location elicited particular ire from the community for how blatantly it advertised its operations.
While he was thankful the city finally responded to their complaints, Monserrate also said the whole process “took longer than it should have."
Monserrate and the coalition called on the city to amend the nuisance abatement law to give law enforcement the power to obtain an emergency shutdown order from a judge within five days of a prostitution or narcotics arrest being made.
The building on 75th Street in Jackson Heights where an alleged brothel operated before being raided by the police. Screenshot via Google Maps
“Empowering either the district attorney or the appropriate police agency with the power to issue the temporary order for five days will really send a message to the organized crime operating that they can't make a mockery of our system,” Monserrate said.
Monserrate said the coalition was aware of at least 20 other alleged illegal prostitution rings operating in the area, and that it had planned to protest apparent brothels in Woodside, Jackson Heights, Elmhurst and Corona.
In recent years, Roosevelt Avenue has been under heavy scrutiny for increases in prostitution, violent crime and illegal vending throughout the stretch of road that runs below the above-ground 7 train in Western Queens. For years, city officials have debated how to address the problems plaguing Roosevelt, especially as regular police crackdowns seem to do little to stymie alleged criminal operations.
In Oct. 2024, former Mayor Eric Adams carried out a large-scale, 90-day enforcement action dubbed “Operation Restore Roosevelt" aimed at targeting brothels and illegal vending in the neighborhood. The controversial operation was carried out in conjunction with a number of state agencies and resulted in more than 2,500 arrests.
While some touted the operation’s success, other elected and city officials decried it as a short-term measure that would do little to stop prostitution rings from returning.
Former interim NYPD Commissioner Tom Donlon, who unsuccessfully sued the Adams administration for using the NYPD as the mayor’s personal “racketeering enterprise,” said that Operation Restore Roosevelt was a flawed plan from the start that only provided a temporary solution.
“As predicted by critics and reported in the media, upon the conclusion of the ORR, the same criminal activity, including open prostitution and illegal markets, promptly returned to Roosevelt Avenue, demonstrating the ineffectiveness of the collective defendant’s chosen strategy,” Donlon said in a lawsuit against the city he filed in July 2025.
Not long after the operation, Assemblymembers Catalina Cruz and Steven Raga, and Krishnan presented a seven-point pitch plan for improving life on Roosevelt Avenue. The plan called for addressing quality of life conditions on Roosevelt, including investment into new lighting, new hotel licensing standards and increased sanitation pickup, instead of relying on police raids to bring down crime.
“We’ve provided funding to local groups who do outreach and provide support to survivors of human trafficking and have continued to advocate to city and state agencies for additional resources along the corridor,” Krishnan said in a statement on Monday. “Our office is dedicated to doing everything we can to make Roosevelt Avenue safer for everyone."
