One of New Yorks’ most notorious pimps was finally caged at the end of July, sentenced to 50 years on charges of human trafficking and ordering the murder of a rival.
The trial of Omari “Prince” Scott, 45, opened a window into the seedy world of the “Penn Track” in East New York, Brooklyn, where he ran multiple women.
Despite Scott’s conviction, sex workers tell The Post business around Pennsylvania Avenue — also known as “the Blade” — continues as brazenly as usual, with tens of women on the streets selling sex for as little as $85 a time and conditions worse than ever.
Meanwhile the NYPD concentrates on “outreach” to sex workers over busting johns.
Two women currently working told The Post on condition of anonymity the practices laid bare in Scott’s prosecution — coercion, violence and ruthless competition — remain part of their lives.
“The pimp will say, ‘We building something.’ But it’s you building and him collecting. “You think you chose him. Then you realize you gotta ask to leave, ask to eat, ask to keep some of your own money.”
Scott demanded women working for him make $1,000 a night, it emerged at trial, which current workers said was typical.
“You gotta have a quota. You don’t make quota, you can’t come inside. You stay out there till you do, even if it’s 4 a.m. and raining,” one of the women who spoke to The Post said.
“[The pimps] sit parked up the block watching. Not to protect you — to make sure you don’t stop, don’t talk too long, don’t pocket anything.”
Even protection, she said, could prove conditional: “If a date gets rough, you call him and maybe he comes, maybe he don’t. If it’s about money though? He comes real quick.”
Late at night, the four-block stretch of the Penn Track takes on an unusual rhythm for what would otherwise be a deserted industrial area in a quiet pocket of the city.
Photos taken by The Post last week show women clad in little more than high heels, neon thongs or skimpy lingerie and sometimes only see-through tops, as they worked the streets.
A steady circuit of slowly moving cars heavily congests the strip, often prompting Google Maps to highlight it red—indicating a traffic jam.
At Scott’s trial, Amanda Vizcarrondo-Ortiz, 35, testified about her experience of being pimped.
She had found the Track online and traveled from Massachusetts to work there alone in late 2022. She unwittingly broke the first rule of the area simply by walking on the sidewalk, thus marking her as a “renegade” — a woman without a pimp — and leading to her promptly being maced, she told a Brooklyn federal jury, according to a trial transcript obtained by The Post.
“She maced me because her pimp told her to, because I was walking on the sidewalk and not in the middle of the street,” she testified.
Scott later found Vizcarrondo-Ortiz and made his pitch as to why she should work for him. She agreed — and from then on, she said, every dollar she made went into his pocket.
“I just make the money and he collects it all,” Vizcarrondo-Ortiz explained. “You can’t be with a pimp … and say, ‘Oh, I’m to keep this.’
In return, she said, a pimp was “supposed to make sure that we’re okay,” using some of the women’s earnings to pay for hotel rooms, meals, clothes and hair products.
One of the women currently working the same strip described a strikingly similar arrangement to The Post.
“He takes it right out your hand. You don’t even put it in your pocket first. If you do, that’s a problem,” she said.
“He says it’s for ‘us’ — but somehow, he always fresh and you still wearing the same thing.”
The women work the street while pimps occupy the sidewalk, Vizcarrondo-Ortiz testified.
“In New York … they stand in a group of 30 or 40 of them,” she said of the pimps. “That is my protection. As far as being on the Track, I was supposed to be with no clothes and heels — naked and heels,” Vizcarrondo-Ortiz testified.
Vizcarrondo-Ortiz testified women trafficked by Scott sometimes appeared with black eyes and Scott also punched her, too.
A summary of the trial evidence against Scott by US District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto included the case of another of Scott’s prostitutes, referred to only as “Henny.”
Scott tracked Henny through the Life360 app and dictated when she could leave the street, get out of the cold, change her shoes and spend money.
When Henny told Scott in a text exchange the following Sunday would be her last day working for him, his response was chilling.
“Oh, that’s the day of your funeral,” he wrote. “You not leaving and that aint no lie.”
Despite bringing in thousands of dollars, Henny depended on Scott to provide money for her child’s diapers and clothes and rides back to the shelter where she lived, according to trial evidence.
It was a brutal cycle prosecutors said Scott repeatedly used: promise women protection, take their earnings, make them dependent on him for necessities and then use violence and threats to keep them working.
“Leaving sounds easy until you think about it. You got no money — he got it all. You got no phone — it’s in his name. Where you gonna go?” one of the Penn Track workers told The Post.
She added pimps with multiple women use competition to keep them in line.
“He got three, four of us. He’ll put us against each other. ‘She made her money, why you can’t?’ Keeps us competing instead of looking at him.”
One of Scott’s trafficking victims, known as Star, testified he beat her in front of Henny, with photographs and video corroborating the abuse.
Henny twice tried to get away. The second time, she attempted to “choose” another pimp: Cleveland Clay.
When Scott found out, he went to find Henny, grabbed her by the hair, dragged her through the street and threw her into his car, according to prosecutors.
“I’m about to violate that b—h,” Scott said in a recorded call played in court. “I’m about to do her something crazy … I’m not respecting this s—t. I’m about to kill this b—h.”
Scott recruited fellow trafficker Michael “Victory” Simmons, gave him a wiped-down gun and sent him after Clay, according to the trial evidence.
Simmons changed into black clothing and tracked Clay to a White Castle, where he shot Clay five times at close range in the parking lot on May 1, 2023. Clay died hours later.
Simmons testified the killing happened because Henny had “decided to choose” Clay.
Jurors convicted Scott in June 2025 of that offense and of trafficking Henny. He had already pleaded guilty to trafficking Star and promoting prostitution.
“Omari Scott was a predator of the worst kind — using violence and financial control to force victims into this work and even orchestrating the murder of a rival for encroaching on his business,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said following his July 29 sentencing.
Simmons pleaded guilty in a separate case and is awaiting sentencing.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in 2022 he was in favor of decriminalizing sex work. In a statement to The Post for this story, his office said: “As the Mayor has made clear, he does not support the legalization of sex work, and there has been no change in city policy on sex work since he has taken office.
“The Office of Community Safety leadership met with the Brooklyn District Attorney’s staff last week about this location to discuss approaches that will deliver durable solutions.”
Although three pimps were taken off the street, others were quick to assume their places. When The Post visited, several men sitting in parked cars and standing on nearby corners appeared to be keeping tabs on the women and the passing vehicles.
Other men repeatedly rode through the area on scooters and bikes, surveying the activity. Some would speak with women before riding off, only to return a short time later and repeat the routine.
Another woman described the nightly balancing act: “You gotta keep your eyes on everything. The date, the other girls, the cops, the guys just sitting there watching. You can’t relax for one second,” she said.
The NYPD stations officers at the Track in an effort to identify trafficking or underage victims and connect them with services which can help.
An NYPD spokesperson told The Post its Human Trafficking Squad has made contact with between 170 and 200 women each year since 2023. It has also made four “outreach operations” along the Penn Track this year, identifying and engaging potential minor and adult victims of sex trafficking and offering services.
However, when NYPD patrol cars passed through on the night of The Post’s visit, the pimps and women did not appear visibly bothered and instead shifted to another stretch of the street.
“One week they leave us alone, next week it’s every night — lights on us, run our names, move along. Then they gone again and it’s back to business,” one worker said.
“This aint my whole life,” she added. “This what I do to get through this part of my life.”
