Lynn Police break up prostitution operation with arrest of couple

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

With the help of a “courageous” person, Lynn police said, they broke up a prostitution operation that brought a woman from Mexico to the doorstep of people who promised to pay $30 to have sex with her.

According to a police report, the woman told authorities she was brought to Lynn from New York City with the expectation that she would work as a prostitute for a week, and split her fees with a Lynn couple who drove her to appointments around the region.

When the couple who allegedly worked as the woman’s pimp were arrested by Lynn police last week, they had nearly $1,000 in cash between them. The woman from Mexico had no cash on her, but was expecting to be paid at the end of the week, police said. She stated in the report that she had 70 customers over the past week.

The woman told police she had arrived in the Greater Boston area around Feb. 4, and expected to return to the New York City area -- with her cash -- Feb. 12.

Police, however, arrested the Lynn couple on Feb. 11. They were both charged with deriving support from prostitution and were identified by police as Luis Gaviria, 31, and his girlfriend, Luciana Felix, 35, both of whom lived on Laighton St. in Lynn. They were arraigned in Lynn District Court Monday.

In court papers, police said the arrest of the Lynn couple was just the latest time they had encountered a prostitution operation with ties to New York and to Mexico and Central America.

According to Lynn police, the department has investigated about a dozen similar cases and have discovered the ring is operated by someone with ties to Colombia and is using women who are in the United States illegally to work as prostitutes for them.

The women stay in the area for just one week and then return to New York City, police said in the report, summarizing the investigation that led to the couple’s arrest.

The new arrest came after someone contacted Lynn police and provided the telephone number allegedly used by the Lynn couple to set up appointments. Police posed as a customer and allegedly convinced Gaviria to drop the Mexican woman off on Lloyd Street.

Felix was arrested when she came to pick the woman up, and Gaviria was taken into custody when he showed up at the police station to bail Felix out. In his wallet were 16 pieces of paper with the phone number used to set up appointments, police said.

He had $770 in cash on him, police said. “He said he has not worked or earned any money since last summer,’’’ police said in the report.

Lynn police spokesman Lieutenant Christopher Kelly credited the “courageous’’ person who first notified police about the operation, and the department’s Special Investigations Unit for shutting the prostitution business down within hours of learning about it.

“The officers did a great job in a short amount of time,’’ he said.

Kelly said it was not known whether the Mexican woman had been forced into prostitution, but he added the investigation is continuing.