Man charged with running brothel inside Albany Park apartment

A man from north suburban Gurnee has been charged with operating a brothel out of an apartment in the Albany Park neighborhood on the Northwest Side.

Luis Zacarias-Ahumada, 39, was arrested Thursday and charged with two counts of promoting prostitution for allegedly running a brothel out of an apartment at 3902 West Lawrence Ave., according to the Cook County Sheriff’s Office and the State’s Attorney’s office.

The Cook County Sheriff’s Police Vice Unit began investigating the apartment in August along with federal investigators.

Officers surveilling the apartment saw several men going inside and staying for 20 minutes or less, prosecutors said.

They also learned of a phone number associated with the brothel that customers could call to set up “dates.” Undercover officers contacted the phone number several times and had conversations about scheduling visits to the brothel, prosecutors said.

On Nov. 29, officers began tracing the GPS signal on the phone. The next day, it led them to Zacarias-Ahumada’s Gurnee home, prosecutors said.

Later that day, officers searched the apartment on Lawrence Avenue where they found two females along with three males who were thought to be customers, prosecutors said.

The females told them that they performed sex acts inside the apartment in exchange for money, with one identifying Zacarias-Ahumada as the man who would bring her to the brothel, organize her “dates” and take money from her after sex, prosecutors said.

Both of the females were given temporary housing and services, the sheriffs office said.

A judge ordered Zacarias-Ahumada jailed on $10,000 bail.

Last year, another man was charged with running a brothel in the same block.