Joseph Harris, also known as “Luis Santana” and “Joey Moscato,” was sentenced at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn to 21 years in prison for sex trafficking multiple victims by force, fraud, and coercion.
From July 2017 until his arrest in May 2018, Harris used violence and threats of violence, along with abusive and coercive tactics, to compel multiple victims to engage in commercial sex acts for his financial benefit.
The defendant’s crimes were uncovered when NYPD officers responded to several 911 calls about girls being held at his apartment in Brooklyn.
In the apartment, officers found two of the defendant’s adult victims along with a 16-year-old minor female.
The officers also recovered a loaded semi-automatic handgun, a birth certificate for a 17-year-old female, hotel receipts, hand-written instructions written by Harris for posting advertisements for commercial sex and other items.
The investigation revealed that Harris used force and threats to compel his victims to work in prostitution and give him the money that they were paid. Harris punished women who withheld money from him and, in at least on one dispute over money, dragged a victim through a pool of bleach he had poured on the floor.
On another occasion, Harris held a victim at gunpoint and posted a photograph of it on his Instagram account. Harris had sexual intercourse with his victims, including underage girls as young as 14, and provided them with drugs, including ecstasy, cocaine, marijuana and pills.
The federal prosecution of the defendant was led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York and the FBI and NYPD’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force, with substantial assistance from the Kings County District Attorney’s Office.
