Man Who Ran 2 Brothels In Asbury Park Sentenced To 60 Years In Prison

ASBURY PARK, NJ — A man who operated two houses of prostitution in Asbury Park was sentenced Jan. 20 to 60 years in state prison.

Paulino “Pablo” Macolas-Aguirre, 46, of Trenton, was the leader of a criminal ring that operated four houses of prostitution total: Two in Asbury Park and two in Trenton, said the New Jersey Attorney General.

In Asbury Park, one brothel was located on Prospect Avenue and the other on 3rd Avenue. In Trenton, the two brothels were on Woodland Street and Hudson Street.

At all four brothels, minors and hundreds of adult women engaged in commercial sex. Men purchased poker chips entitling them to select a woman for sexual activity in 15-minute increments.

House managers were responsible for maintaining detailed ledgers of how many customers paid for sex acts each day. The ledgers showed women engaged in sex acts with upwards of 30 men a day. One ledger reflected a woman engaged in sex acts with 41 men in a single day.

The Hudson Street house in Trenton was fortified with a padlock on the gate leading to the alley to the rear door, had a wooden 2×4 plank across the entrance door and a sophisticated surveillance system. On May 11, 2022, NJ State Police detectives executed search warrants on the Hudson Street house, the house on Prospect Avenue in Asbury Park, the house on Woodland Street in Trenton and Macolas-Aguirre’s personal residence. In his home, detectives found more than $44,000 in stacks of cash in a bag in his closet with his passport.

Searches of the brothels revealed approximately $25,000 in prostitution proceeds, in addition to thousands of condoms, dozens of bottles of lubricant and other supplies.

As the leader, Macolas-Aguirre recruited and lured the victims to the operation, supervised the house managers, rented the houses of prostitution, scheduled the workers, paid the workers and victims at the end of each week, and created and distributed business cards to ensure a steady stream of customers. He was convicted last August of conspiracy, racketeering, human trafficking, promoting prostitution, endangering the welfare of a child, financial facilitation of criminal activity, and promoting organized street crime.

“This defendant recruited women, including a minor, to perform sexual acts for money,” said Theresa Hilton, director of the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice. “He called the shots as the leader of this well-organized human trafficking operation and has now been sentenced to an appropriate penalty for his crimes. The outstanding work of the investigators and prosecutors in this case put an end to a significant sex trafficking ring.”

Two of Macolas-Aguirre’s employees, Edy Villeda-Estrada and Daniel Camara Bonito, acted as “house managers” and were arrested at the house; they subsequently pleaded guilty to facilitating human trafficking. Five other employees — Efran Melo Castillo, Lauren Macolas Aguirre, Jose Camara Perico, and Daniela Camara Perico — all previously pleaded guilty to their involvement in running the brothels.