by WorldTribune Staff, April 20, 2026 Non-AI Real World News

Three individuals who allegedly ran a prostitution ring and harbored illegal aliens out of a strip club in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands have been arrested, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

A federal judge in the District of the Virgin Islands issued a criminal complaint and authorized arrest warrants charging Hussein Jamil, also known as Hussian Jamil Suarez, also known as Tony, 56; Magda Castro Santos also known as Tatiana, 39; and Julio Hidaldo De Pena 65; all of St. Thomas, USVI, for their alleged respective roles in a variety of criminal activities centered around an establishment known as Tootsys Gentlemen’s Club, the Justice Department said in an April 20 press release.

According to court documents, Jamil owns and operates Tootsys, a strip club in St. Thomas which he, Castro Santos, and Hidaldo De Pena are alleged to have operated as a brothel.

“The alleged conspirators advertised Tootsys over Instagram and other platforms to recruit women to work at the club. They are alleged to have hired both U.S. citizens and illegal aliens as dancers and sex workers,” the Justice Department said.

Jamil is alleged to have paid for U.S. citizens to fly from elsewhere within the United States to St. Thomas and financed smuggling operations for aliens to illegally enter the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Most of the dancers working at Tootsys lived in a house on St. Thomas rented by Jamil.

Hidaldo De Pena transported the dancers from the rental house to Tootsys and back for their shifts.

Castro Santos managed the dancers while at Tootsys, ensuring they paid their required fees, directing clients to the dancers, and collecting payments for private dances and commercial sex, among other managerial acts, the Justice Department said.

Some alleged victims, as young as 17, stripped when they started working for previous iterations of Red Hook’s Tootsys Gentlemen’s Club, according to court records. Some, smuggled into the territory illegally, had their passports seized until payment was made, according to court records.

Dancers were typically charged $100 to $200 per week to live at the Bolongo house and made to pay a $60 buy-in fee every night in order to work at Tootsys, according to court records. They were required to work six nights a week — Tuesday through Sunday — and were fined $500 for every night’s work they missed. They were also fined $10 for every 15 minutes they were late to work, prosecutors alleged.

“When dancers arrived on St. Thomas for the purpose of working at Tootsys, the alleged conspirators’ coercive fee scheme pushed the dancers to make more money by engaging in commercial sex, both at Tootsys and through customers ‘buying out’ dancers to take them to an offsite premises,” the press release said.

Jamil, Castro Santo, and Hildaldo de Pena are each charged with conspiracy to transport for purpose of prostitution, conspiracy to commit interstate and foreign travel or transportation in aid of racketeering enterprises, and conspiracy to harbor aliens for financial gain.

If convicted, they each face a maximum penalty of five years in prison for conspiracy to transport for purpose of prostitution and conspiracy to commit interstate and foreign travel or transportation in aid of racketeering enterprises and 10 years in prison for conspiracy to harbor aliens for financial gain.

These arrests are part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion, which he signed on his first day in office of his second term.

“The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad,” the Justice Department said.

2026 Contract With Our Readers

  harbored illegal aliens, Justice Dept.: St. Thomas strip club ran as prostitution ring, WorldTribune.com