By: Jordan Baker

Queens activists are escalating their fight against organized crime on Roosevelt Avenue, demanding that the FBI intervene against what they describe as “foreign national” gangs running prostitution, narcotics, and fake ID rings.

As the New York Post first reported, local leaders Rosa Sanchez of the Restore Roosevelt Avenue Coalition and Democratic district leader Hiram Monserrate sent a letter on August 14 to FBI Director Kash Patel. In it, they urged federal investigators to treat the crime surge as a national security threat. “We request that you initiate an investigation into what we understand are gangs engaging in criminal enterprises including human trafficking, illegal narcotics sales and the mass distribution of fraudulent documents which poses a national security threat,” the letter reads.

The Post reported that the appeal comes after months of complaints about Roosevelt Avenue’s so-called “Market of Sweethearts,” a notorious stretch where prostitution, drug dealing, and illegal vending flourish despite repeated police crackdowns. Sanchez and Monserrate said state and local laws have proven inadequate, leaving federal action as the only solution.

In their letter, the pair thanked the FBI and Trump administration officials for previous prosecutions targeting the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua and the 18th Street gang—groups notorious for extorting brothels, selling narcotics, and distributing counterfeit documents. But they warned the Post that both gangs remain deeply entrenched in Queens, with 18th Street members still hawking phony green cards and Social Security documents between 80th and 84th Streets.

The New York Post noted that Sanchez and Monserrate also accused Chinese organized crime groups, including the Triads, of controlling multiple brothel locations in Corona and Elmhurst. “According to our sources several locations are being operated and controlled by Chinese organized crime. … The information we have continued gathering is unsettling,” they wrote.

Despite over 500 prostitution-related arrests this year by the NYPD, the sex trade continues to thrive along Roosevelt Avenue. The Post has exposed how open-air solicitation is commonplace, with women luring customers into upstairs brothels. Illegal street vendors—often tied to the same criminal networks—add to the atmosphere of lawlessness.

At a weekend press conference outside one suspected brothel, Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa said the real culprits are the landlords who knowingly rent space to pimps and traffickers. “You go on the side streets. It’s open air prostitution in which the girls lure you upstairs. So the number one problem is with the landlords,” he said, according to the New York Post. Sliwa vowed that, if elected, he would padlock properties linked to prostitution and impose heavy fines on owners who allow such activity.

Sliwa also blasted Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani, pointing out his history of supporting legislation to decriminalize prostitution. “He’s not going to do anything about this problem,” Sliwa argued, pledging that his own administration would shut down every brothel-linked property in the city.

As the Post underscored, the activists’ call for FBI intervention reflects growing frustration with both city and state officials, who have failed to stop Roosevelt Avenue’s descent into what locals now call a “gangland.”