Fifty-seven-year-old Bronx resident Paul Alexander was arrested Thursday for allegedly trafficking girls as young as 12 years old.
“The arrest was the result of a joint investigation by the state prosecutor’s office called ‘Operation Mile High’ — a nod to his job as CEO of Central Jet Charter, New York Attorney General Letitia James said Saturday,” the New York Post reported.
Alexander allegedly charged an undercover agent $300 for sex with two girls, with both victims earning a third of the money, the article read.
The New York attorney general’s office detailed the events in a press release on Saturday:
Through the use of covert recording devices, social media, and undercover operations, the investigative team determined that Alexander was, in fact, trafficking children across county lines for sex. The initial investigation began in March after a female minor reported Alexander to the NYPD, alleging that Alexander sexually abused her and other underage girls, and promoted them for prostitution to other men. An undercover police officer met with Alexander who charged him a total of $300 for sexual intercourse with a 12-year-old victim and a 14-year-old victim — and encouraged the undercover officer to use alcohol and marijuana to make the victims more cooperative.
Alexander was arraigned Saturday and charged with “multiple counts of Sex Trafficking of a Child, Attempted Sex Trafficking of a Child, related counts of First and Second Degrees of Promoting Prostitution, and two counts of Endangering the Welfare of a Child,” the release said.
If convicted of the top counts, he faces up to 50 years in prison.
“Alexander was added to the state’s Sex Offender Registry after he was arrested in 2003 on charges of kidnapping and having ‘deviate sexual intercourse’ with a 17-year-old girl in Yonkers,” the New York Daily News reported.
A woman who lives on the floor below Alexander’s said his apartment was always noisy, adding that she warned him to keep his distance from her children.
“He has never messed with me or with my daughters. He would make so much noise. I took a bat and went upstairs and told him, ‘Come here, if you ever touch one of my daughters … I will kill you right here in this building,'” the neighbor said in Spanish.
Another neighbor told the Post she remembered seeing the alleged victims wearing skimpy clothing and that they appeared to be younger than 18.
“They had on little sports bras, little shorts,” she noted. “I’m so glad he’s gone. He has like a creepy vibe, like he’s a villain.”