BOSTON, July 10, 2013—A 75-year-old Roxbury man was arraigned today on human trafficking charges for allegedly using his property to benefit financially from rampant prostitution there, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said today.

The Suffolk County Grand Jury on June 25 indicted FARD AHMED (D.O.B. 1/3/38) on charges of human trafficking and deriving support from prostitution.  He was previously arraigned in Roxbury District Court in April on a charge allowing a premise to be used for immoral purposes and again in May on a separate charge of deriving support from prostitution.  Today’s arraignment moves both of those cases to Superior Court, where they will be adjudicated.

Assistant District Attorney Jennifer O’Keefe of the DA’s Family Protection and Sexual Assault Bureau requested that the $300 bail set in the district court remain in place.  Clerk Magistrate Connie Wong granted the request.

“We allege that this defendant knowingly profited from prostitution conducted almost around the clock on his property,” Conley said. “Neighbors were fed up with him, and the law has caught up with him.”

Under Massachusetts’ landmark human trafficking law, a person may be charged with that offense if he or she knowingly harbors another person to engage in commercial sexual activity or benefits financially from harboring a person to engage in commercial sexual activity.

According to prosecutors, a Boston police officer working in an undercover capacity arranged an April 8 rendezvous with a woman allegedly working as a prostitute and was instructed by the woman to meet her at Ahmed’s 131 Eustis St. building. Upon the officer’s arrival, the woman allowed him inside and then used a two-by-four board to secure the doors.  Prosecutors said the officer questioned the woman about an elderly man later identified as Ahmed standing in a hallway, and was told that he had rented her the room for $20.  The officer finalized his arrangement with the prostitute in Ahmed’s presence, prosecutors allege.

In the building’s bedrooms police found several men and women, some of whom admitted to police that they were at the house to engage in prostitution and that they rented the rooms from Ahmed for that purpose, prosecutors said. Inside a bedroom believed to be used by Ahmed, officers discovered a ledger documenting the room rentals, prosecutors said.

At his arrest, Ahmed made statements to police that he rented out rooms to people who could not afford a hotel and also sold them beer, condoms, and lubricant, prosecutors said.

Just two days later, on April 10, officers patrolling the area in response to a high number of community complaints watched a man approach the Eustis Street address in the company of a woman whom police knew worked as a prostitute.  Ahmed opened the door to allow the two to enter.  In an interview, the woman made comments to police admitting she was there to rent a room in order to have sex for a fee, prosecutors said.  Ahmed was not arrested at that time.

He was arrested again on May 3 and charged with deriving support from prostitution after police stopped a man and woman from entering the Eustis Street address when Ahmed opened the door to allow them inside.  The man allegedly told police he was there to engage in sex for a fee, prosecutors said.

Ahmed has prior convictions for rape, possession of a firearm, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and drug offenses, prosecutors said.

Ahmed is represented by Susan Rayburn.  He will return to court on Sept. 16.

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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.