Man busted in NYC sex trafficking probe was known pedophile: neighbors

December 5, 2020 | 8:44pm | Updated December 5, 2020 | 11:05pm

Neighbors of the convicted sex offender who was arrested in the Bronx Thursday say he was a known pedophile and alleged they regularly saw him bringing young girls back to his apartment.

Paul Alexander, 57, the CEO of a small, Bronx-based charter jet company, was arrested this week on charges he trafficked girls as young as 12 years old.

The arrest was the result of a joint investigation by the state prosecutor’s office called “Operation Mile High” — a nod to his job as CEO of Central Jet Charter, New York Attorney General Letitia James said Saturday.

Alexander had no remorse for his young victims, and would charge older men to have sex with them, the AG’s office said.

He allegedly charged an undercover agent $300 for sex with two young victims, ages 14 and 12, with each girl earning a third of the take, according to a criminal complaint.

The undercover investigator was told to give the kids alcohol before doing the deed, according to the complaint. 

Neighbor Dan Santiago, 26, told The Post he would see groups of young girls and men coming in and out of Alexander’s apartment in their building in Fordham Heights.

“I would always see him with little girls up there,” he alleged. “It was never one person coming out of the apartment, it was always like a group. I found that suspicious. He was doing something up there for sure.”

Alexander was arraigned Saturday in Bronx County Criminal Court on multiple counts of child sex trafficking charges.

Another neighbor, who lives below Alexander, said the apartment was always noisy and that she even warned him to stay away from her daughters.

“He has never messed with me or with my daughters. He would make so much noise. I took a bat and went upstairs and told him, ‘Come here, if you ever touch one of my daughters … I will kill you right here in this building,’” the woman said in Spanish.

“No, no. It wasn’t like that,” she said Alexander told her.

The woman, who didn’t want to be named, was relieved Alexander was behind bars and hoped he wouldn’t harm any more young girls.

“They need to take him away from here. We don’t people like that here” the woman said. “Children live here, and I have to take care of my daughters.”

A woman who opened the door of Alexander’s apartment claiming to be his roommate said she didn’t see anything suspicious because she was never home.

Other neighbors recalled seeing Alexander wandering around a school in Fordham Heights.

“He stays by the McDonald’s, [on Fordham Road] that’s where he finds them. That’s where he would pick up those kids,” said a neighbor who lives on the first floor. “There is a high school around there, he would go there and be waiting on them.”

Neighbors recalled seeing the girls wearing skimpy clothing and claimed they looked younger than 18.

“They had on little sports bras, little shorts,” recalled another female neighbor. “I’m so glad he’s gone. He has like a creepy vibe, like he’s a villain.”

Additional reporting by Georgett Roberts